Universities  and  Scientific  Life 
in  the  United  States 


BY 
MAURICE  CAULLERY 

PROFESSOR  AT  THE  SORBONNE 
FRENCH  EXCHANGE  PROFESSOR  AT  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY,  1916 


TRANSLATED  BY 

JAMES  HAUGHTON  WOODS 

AND 

EMMET  RUSSELL 


"  The  world  has  been  remade  in  the  last  half -century ." 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT 


CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1922 


' 


COPYRIGHT,  1922 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


TO  MY  FRIENDS  AT  HARVARD 
AND  IN  PARTICULAR 

TO 
GEORGE  HOWARD  PARKER 


'70145 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  is  based  on  observations  and  impressions 
which  I  gathered  during  a  stay  of  five  months  in  the 
United  States. 

As  a  biologist,  I  describe  the  university  landscape 
above  all  from  the  scientific  and  more  specially  from  the 
biological  point  of  view,  but  with  the  design  of  making 
the  whole  of  it  understood  and  of  setting  it  into  the  gen- 
eral framework  of  contemporary  American  society. 

During  the  second  half-year  of  1915-16,  I  had  the 
honor  of  being  Exchange  Professor  at  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. And  my  first  word  here  must  be  to  affirm,  once 
more,  the  very  great  utility  of  exchanges  of  professors 
between  French  and  American  universities.  They  are 
among  the  most  efficacious  means  of  helping  the  two 
countries  to  know,  esteem  and  aid  one  another.  The 
great  mass  cannot  cross  the  Atlantic;  but  if  the  educa- 
tors of  youth  have  done  so,  they  may  help  to  dissipate 
many  prejudices.  They  are  almost  bound,  it  seems  to 
me,  not  to  keep  to  themselves  the  experience  acquired, 
however  incomplete  their  observations  may  often  be. 
That  is  what  has  determined  me  to  write  the  following 
pages.  I  wish  that  they  may  make  better  known  in 
France  an  aspect  of  American  democracy,  which  is  not 
that  under  which  we  are  most  commonly  led  to  look  at 
it,  and  also  that  they  may  emphasize  the  efforts  which 
the  immediate  consequences  of  the  war  imperiously 
oblige  us  to  make  without  delay. 


vi  PREFACE 

It  is  my  duty  —  and  a  very  pleasant  one  —  to  in- 
scribe, at  the  beginning  of  this  book,  my  best  gratitude 
for  the  welcome  I  received  in  America.  American  hos- 
pitality was  shown  me  from  the  time  I  set  foot  on  New 
York  soil.  On  my  arrival  in  Cambridge,  President 
Lowell  received  me  in  his  house,  and  my  first  impression 
of  Harvard  was  that  of  the  simple  cordiality  which  is 
the  charm  of  the  Harvard  community,  and  which  unites 
all  its  members,  from  the  president  down  to  young 
freshmen.  Everywhere,  in  New  York,  Boston,  Balti- 
more, Princeton,  Yale,  Chicago,  and  at  San  Diego  on 
the  Pacific,  I  found  friends  and  colleagues  to  welcome 
me  with  the  same  affectionate  eagerness. 

Likewise  I  received  favors  on  the  part  of  learned 
bodies.  I  felt  particularly  the  honor  which  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  and  the  National  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences did  me  in  inviting  me  as  a  guest  at  Easter  1916  to 
their  meetings  in  Philadelphia  and  in  Washington. 

I  have  also  to  thank  the  clubs  —  particularly  the 
Colonial  Club  at  Cambridge  and  the  Harvard  Clubs  of 
Boston  and  New  York  —  which,  by  opening  their  doors 
to  me  during  my  entire  stay,  added  to  its  ease  and  in- 
creased its  delight. 

My  colleagues  at  Harvard,  especially  those  of  the 
department  of  Zoology,  welcomed  me  with  an  eagerness 
which  the  tales  of  my  predecessors  had  made  me  ex- 
pect, but  which  touched  me  none  the  less.  At  Harvard, 
they  know  how  to  make  the  newcomer  forget,  from  the 
first  day,  that  he  is  a  stranger,  and  to  give  him  the  il- 
lusion of  being  a  regular  and  permanent  member  of  the 
university.  Friends  watch  attentively  to  foresee  the 
least  wishes  of  the  guest,  and  to  remove  every  difficulty. 


PREFACE  vii 

And  they  exercise  their  ingenuity  in  making  his  stay 
constantly  agreeable.  I  dedicate  this  book  to  the  de- 
lightful memories  of  these  firm  friendships. 

I  understood,  through  my  own  experience,  what  my 
colleague  and  friend  Paul  Marchal  wrote  recently,  in 
regard  to  a  scientific  journey  to  the  United  States  in 
1913,  and  in  particular  regarding  a  stay  at  Cornell 
University.  "One  must  have  lived  for  several  days," 
he  says,  "in  the  atmosphere  of  this  ideal  society  of  the 
arts  and  sciences,  in  order  fully  to  enjoy  its  charm,  and 
to  understand  its  harmony,  which  call  to  mind  the 
picture  of  the  Future  City  of  Henrik  Anderson.  One 
realizes  then  to  what  a  profound  error  European  travel- 
ers are  the  victims,  who  estimate  American  life  and 
civilization,  by  judgments  formed  upon  the  overwhelm- 
ing impressions  which  they  have  felt  in  the  whirl  of  the 
great  business  thoroughfares  of  New  York,  or  from  visit- 
ing the  famous  Stockyards  section  of  Chicago."  l  It  is 
in  fact  a  profound  impression  of  idealism  that  one 
brings  back  from  American  university  circles. 

In  1916,  during  the  months  when  the  battle  of  Verdun 
was  going  on,  the  meaning  of  it  to  a  Frenchman  was 
singularly  reenforced  by  the  warm  sympathy  which  he 
felt  in  the  unanimity  of  the  American  intellectual  class 
for  the  cause  of  France  and  the  heroism  of  her  soldiers. 
He  felt  himself  in  the  midst  of  friends  more  than  one 
of  whom  regretted  not  yet  being  an  ally.  And  he  car- 
ried away  the  precious  conviction  that  sincere  American 

1  P.  Marchal,  Les  Sciences  Biologiques  Appliqufas  d  I'agriculture  et  la 
lutte  contre  les  ennemis  des  plantes  aux  fitats-Unis.  Paris  (Lhomme),  1916, 
p.  252. 


viii  PREFACE 

feeling  and  the  American  heart  were  won  for  his  coun- 
try, that  the  best  people  in  America  justly  appreciated 
the  extent,  the  purity,  and  the  nobility  of  the  sacrifice 
stoically  undergone  by  the  youth  of  France,  for  the  sal- 
vation of  civilization  and  liberty. 

MAURICE  CAULLERY. 
PARIS,  June  1917. 


PREFACE  BY  THE  AUTHOR  TO  THE 
TRANSLATION 

AT  the  beginning  of  this  English  edition,  I  wish  to 
express  my  hearty  thanks  to  my  translators,  and 
especially  to  my  good  friend,  J.  H.  Woods.    I  am  glad 
that  in  this  form  these  impressions  of  my  journey  will 
reach  wider  circles  of  American  life. 

But  I  should  like  to  warn  the  reader  against  errone- 
ous conclusions  that  might  be  drawn  from  the  book.  It 
was  written  for  the  French  public.  One  should  not  be 
surprised  to  find  many  details  which  seem  superfluous 
to  Americans.  And  on  the  other  hand,  when  I  spoke  of 
France  and  made  comparisons  I  presupposed  among  my 
readers  a  general  knowledge  of  academic  and  scientific 
life  in  France  and  confined  myself  to  allusions.  Be- 
cause I  wished  to  stimulate  public  opinion,  I  insisted 
almost  exclusively  on  points  or  reforms  that  seemed  to 
me  desirable.  The  result  is  that  only  the  defects  of  the 
French  institutions  seem  to  be  noted  —  which  exist  in 
all  countries  not  excepting  the  United  States  —  while 
this  impression  does  not  appear  to  be  counterbalanced 
by  the  solid  qualities  which  our  higher  education  does 
actually  possess.  I  should  be  distressed  if  the  reader, 
heedless  of  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  book  was 
written,  would  regard  it  as  a  general  criticism  of  French 
methods.  Our  traditions  often  impose  upon  us  heavy 
chains.  But  they  have  also  fertile  educative  qualities. 
Those  who  have  a  true  knowledge  of  France,  who  judge 
her  without  prejudice,  can  appreciate  the  clarity,  the 


x  PREFACE 

solidity,  and  the  refinement  in  her;  and  also  the  high- 
mindedness  which  is  at  the  foundation  of  French  men- 
tality. To  this  Professor  Barrett  Wendell  has  himself 
borne  witness.  As  to  the  spirit  of  discovery,  it  has  shown 
itself,  time  and  again,  under  conditions  the  more  signifi- 
cant, because  the  material  aids  at  the  disposal  of  in- 
vestigators left  much  to  be  desired. 

M.  CAULLERY. 
PARIS,  December  1920. 


NOTE  BY  THE  TRANSLATORS 

THIS  translation  was  begun  in  Paris  during  the  war. 
During  the  disorganization  of  the  system  of  trans- 
portation the  manuscript  in  its  final  form  disappeared 
somewhere  between  Havre  and  New  York.  The  second 
version  is  accordingly  much  delayed.  But  it  seems  un- 
wise to  add  to  the  original  any  attempt  to  describe  the 
violent  oscillations  to  which  American  universities  have 
been  subjected  since  1916.  The  book  thus  remains  un- 
changed, a  picture  of  academic  life  in  the  United  States 
before  the  great  upheavals  of  the  war,  and  a  pledge  of 
comradeship  between  French  and  American  universities 
in  the  years  to  come.  Thanks  are  due  to  Dr.  Raphael 
Demos  for  assistance  on  the  last  pages. 

JAMES  HAUGHTON  WOODS. 
EMMET  RUSSELL. 
MAY  10,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE v 

PREFACE  BY  THE  AUTHOR  TO  THE  TRANSLATION     .    .  ix 

NOTE  BY  THE  TRANSLATORS xi 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS xiii 

PART  I 
THE  UNIVERSITIES 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  PRINCIPAL  UNIVERSITIES      3 

Colleges  and  universities.  Recent  development.  The  principal 
universities.  Private  and  state  universities.  Denominational  and 
undenominational  universities. 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  BEGINNINGS:  FROM  COLLEGE  TO  UNIVERSITY     .       16 

The  classical  college  and  the  Bachelor's  degree.  Its  evolution  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  elective  system.  The  professional  schools. 
The  introduction  of  scientific  research  and  the  graduate  schools. 
German  influence.  The  equilibrium  between  the  college  and  the 
superadded  parts. 

CHAPTER  III 

THE  EXTERNAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY   ....      28 

The  campus.  Harvard:  the  Yard  and  the  various  additions.  Co- 
lumbia. Princeton.  Berkeley.  Cornell.  Contrast  with  French 
universities. 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 

UNIVERSITY  ADMINISTRATION.    THE  GOVERNMENT  OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY      39 

Harvard,  the  Corporation  and  the  Board  of  Overseers.  Part  played 
by  the  Alumni.  Other  universities.  Trustees  and  Regents.  The 
President.  His  powers  and  position. 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  PROFESSORS      50 

General  conditions  of  the  career.  Moral  and  material  desiderata. 
Excessive  burden  of  teaching.  Insufficient  participation  in  the 
management.  Precarious  guaranties.  Advances  in  the  career. 
Salary.  Retirement  pensions.  The  Carnegie  Foundation. 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  STUDENTS  AND  THE  INSTRUCTION 65 

The  classical  college  (undergraduate).  Admission.  Organization  of 
studies.  Departments.  Coordination  of  courses.  Examinations 
and  graduation.  College  life.  Social  and  collective  life.  The 
dormitories.  Clubs  and  fraternities.  Sports  and  athletics.  Vari- 
ous associations,  dramatic  societies.  The  general  results  of  college 
studies. 

CHAPTER  VII 

YOUNG  WOMEN  AND  THE  COLLEGE 79 

Prevalence  of  coeducation  in  the  western  universities.  Its  still  ex- 
ceptional character  in  the  eastern.  Women's  colleges.  Parallelism 
of  studies.  Social  results.  Education  and  the  race  problem. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES      ....      90 

Relations  with  the  college.  Development.  Degrees.  Master  of 
Arts.  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  The  doctorate  in  the  principal  uni- 
versities. 


CONTENTS  xv 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS    ...........      99 

First  group:  Theology,  Law,  Medicine,  Dentistry,  Pharmacy. 
Second  group  :  Schools  of  Pedagogy,  Teachers'  College  at  Columbia, 
School  of  Education  at  Chicago.  Schools  of  Fine  Arts.  Architec- 
ture. Schools  of  Journalism. 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS    ...........     112 


Third  group  :  Advanced  Schools  of  Commerce.  Harvard  Graduate 
School  of  Business  Administration.  Chicago.  Philadelphia.  En- 
gineering Schools:  Origin,  the  Morrill  Act,  and  the  Colleges  of 
Agriculture  and  Mechanics.  Independent  Schools  of  Technology. 
The  various  engineering  specializations.  Practical  character  of  the 
instruction.  Schools  of  Agriculture:  R61e  of  the  Morrill  Act.  Colleges 
of  Agriculture.  Cornell,  California,  Illinois  Universities,  etc.  The 
Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Colleges.  Veterinary  Schools. 

CHAPTER  XI 

UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION  AND  THE  SUMMER  SESSION  .    .     1  29 

Importance  and  character  of  the  summer  session.  The  University 
of  Chicago  quarter  system.  Extension  proper:  its  beginnings. 
Chautauqua  institutes.  Extension  at  Harvard,  at  Columbia,  in  the 
state  universities  (California,  Wisconsin).  Breadth  of  university 
extension. 

CHAPTER  XII 

GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS  ON  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE 
UNIVERSITIES.    UNIVERSITIES  AND  SOCIETY.    ...     136 

Insufficiency  of  preparation  by  secondary  education.  Broad  con- 
tact of  the  university  with  youth.  Evolution  of  the  universities. 
R61e  of  the  state  universities.  Broadening  of  the  social  function  of 
the  universities.  Contact  with  society.  R61e  of  the  alumni.  Loy- 
alty and  donations.  Links  with  the  university:  clubs. 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PART  II 
THE  SCIENTIFIC  RESEARCH 

CHAPTER  XIII 

SCIENTIFIC  RESEARCH  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY       ....     155 

Its  conditions.  Selection  of  the  personnel,  and  the  sciences.  Mr. 
J.  McK.  Cattell's  statistics  and  the  distribution  of  the  best  Ameri- 
can scientists.  The  scientific  equipment:  laboratories  and  libraries. 
The  relation  of  research  and  teaching. 

CHAPTER  XIV 

INSTITUTES  OF  RESEARCH 172 

1.  Research  in  the  service  of  industry.  The  Mellon  Institute  at 
Pittsburgh.  2.  Wistar  Institute  at  Philadelphia.  3.  The  biological 
stations:  Wood's  Hole,  Bermuda,  San  Diego  (Scripps  Institute 
for  biological  research). 

CHAPTER  XV 

INSTITUTES  FOR  RESEARCH 183 

The  Carnegie  Institution  at  Washington.  Its  organization.  Its 
various  departments.  The  Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical  Re- 
search at  New  York. 

CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  MUSEUMS  AND  IN  PARTICULAR 
THE  AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF 
NEW  YORK 193 

CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  FEDERAL  INSTITUTIONS 201 

Scientific  Research  at  Washington. 


CONTENTS  xvii 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

ACADEMIES  AND  SCIENTIFIC  SOCIETIES 219 

CHAPTER  XIX 

GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS 235 

Lessons  to  be  drawn  for  France.    Necessity  of  a  Renewal  of  the 

Agencies  and  Structures  of  our  Intellectual  Life. 

"  The  world  has  been  remade  during  the  last  half -century." 

APPENDICES  .  267 


UNIVERSITIES  AND  SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

•    • 

PART  I 
THE  UNIVERSITIES 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PRINCIPAL  UNIVERSITIES 

Colleges  and  universities.  Recent  development.  The  principal  univer- 
sities. Private  and  state  universities.  Denominational  and  undenomina- 
tional universities. 

IN  order  to  form  an  idea  of  scientific  life  in  the  United 
States,  one  should  study  first  the  universities.  Al- 
though the  scientific  effort  does  not  all  come  from  them 
and  although  there  is  even  a  tendency  to  organize  out- 
side of  them  the  most  powerful  institutions  and  those 
especially  destined  to  promote  discoveries,  still  they  re- 
main at  the  present  time  the  great  centres  of  research, 
and  they  are  the  environment  in  which  future  workers 
are  trained.  The  productive  capacity  of  the  country 
rests  therefore  upon  them;  on  their  good  qualities,  on 
their  defects,  depend  the  fecundity  or  the  deficiencies 
of  American  science.  There  is,  then,  an  evident  in- 
terest in  making  a  study  of  them  first,  and  in  revealing 
their  spirit. 

And  also,  they  are  so  different  from  our  own,  so 
linked,  as  is  natural,  with  the  whole  of  American  society, 
and  with  the  historical  conditions  of  its  development, 
that  a  complete  description  is  necessary  in  order  to 
understand  them  and  to  analyze  their  part  in  the  con- 
temporary scientific  movement. 

Like  everything  in  the  United  States,  they  have 
passed,  in  the  half-century  since  the  War  of  Secession, 
through  a  phase  of  marvelous  prosperity  and  develop- 
ment. Especially  in  the  last  thirty  years,  this  move- 
ment has  been  accentuated.  The  proof  of  it  will  be 


4      [UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

found  in  the  figures  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  cite 
in  the  course  of  the  following  chapters.  This  develop- 
ment has  been  extraordinarily  rapid  and  consequently 
hasty.  It  has  taken  place  in  perfect  freedom,  in  an  in- 
dependent manner  in  the  different  parts  of  the  country, 
and  not  with  the  uniformity  that  a  central  power  im- 
presses on  the  institutions  of  countries  like  ours.  One 
feels  very  strongly  that  all  this  has  by  no  means  ar- 
rived at  equilibrium,  no  more  than  the  cities  them- 
selves. 

The  American  university  is  very  broadly  conceived. 
In  1865  Ezra  Cornell  founded  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  the  uni- 
versity which  bears  his  name,  and  which  has  become 
one  of  the  most  important  in  the  Union.  "My  inten- 
tion," he  said,  in  a  phrase  which  is  now  the  motto  in- 
scribed on  the  seal  of  this  university,  "is  to  found  an 
institution  where  any  man  may  be  instructed  in  any 
subject."  That  is  a  program  as  immense  as  it  is  gen- 
erous. It  could  be  only  partially  realized,  but  it  ex- 
presses the  present  idea  of  the  university.  It  was, 
moreover,  in  the  main  that  of  the  French  Encyclope- 
dists of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  our  Revolution 
dreamed  of  realizing  without  being  able  to  do  so. 

In  principle,  the  American  university  considers  that 
nothing  is  foreign  to  it,  and  it  offers  a  diversity  of 
teaching  and  of  schools  infinitely  greater  than  the  tra- 
ditional five  Faculties  (theology,  law,  medicine,  sci- 
ences, and  letters)  of  the  universities  of  continental 
Europe. 

In  fact,  it  is  the  juxtaposition  of  three  principal  ele- 
ments, of  which  one,  the  classical  college,  is  historically 
fundamental.  On  this  college  there  have  come  to  be 
superimposed,  on  the  one  hand,  a  higher  school  of  dis- 


UNIVERSITIES  5 

interested  studies  and  of  scientific  research,  the  Gradu- 
ate School  of  Arts  and  Sciences;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
so-called  professional  schools,  furnishing  the  necessary 
knowledge  for  the  more  or  less  learned  careers,  law, 
medicine,  the  evangelical  profession,  and  likewise  for 
all  the  industrial,  commercial  or  agricultural  callings. 
In  short,  the  university  aspires  to  train  the  leaders  in 
all  branches  of  social  activity.  We  see,  then,  that  it  has, 
through  this  program,  a  very  vast  contact  with  the 
whole  of  the  national  life. 

The  college  remains  the  framework  of  the  university. 
It  partakes  of  the  character  of  our  secondary  education 
almost  as  much  as  of  that  of  our  higher  instruction; 
it  is  a  hybrid  between  them.  Socially,  it  is  the  chief 
element.  Its  spirit,  consequently,  is  something  that 
one  must  know.  Finally,  it  constitutes  in  many  cases, 
by  itself  alone,  the  whole  institution.  There  are  now, 
in  fact,  in  the  United  States,  nearly  600  universities  or 
colleges,1  forming,  from  the  point  of  view  of  their  ma- 
terial importance,  of  the  elevation  and  diversity  of 
their  studies,  a  very  continuous  scale.  Quite  a  number 
of  them  are,  in  reality,  institutions  for  no  more  than 
secondary  education.  All  tend  to  enlarge  and  to  re- 
semble true  universities  as  much  as  possible.  There  is 
a  warm  competition  among  all;  thus  they  reflect  that 
spirit  of  "bigness"  which  impregnates  all  American 
life. 

These  600  universities  and  colleges  represent  a  con- 
siderable student  population.  It  numbers  at  present 

1  The  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  gives  the  statistics  of 
596  colleges  and  universities  in  1912-13,  and  of  567  in  1913-14.  Of  this 
latter  number  93  are  state  or  municipal  establishments,  and  474  are  private 
institutions. 


6      UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

between  200,000  and  300,000,  and  the  figures  below 
show  with  what  rapidity  it  has  increased  in  less  than 
thirty  years. 


Years 

Men 

Women 

Total 

1889-90   

44,926 

26,874 

65,800 

1900-01 

75,472 

38,900 

114,372 

1913-14  

139,373 

77,120 

216,493 

In  spite  of  their  extreme  inequality,  there  is  never- 
theless a  rather  uniform  general  spirit  among  them, 
which  impregnates  the  youth  who  frequent  them,  and 
which  in  a  society  so  heterogeneous  as  the  present 
United  States,  is  an  important  factor  of  unification. 

Of  course  it  would  not  be  possible  to  study  here  all 
the  American  universities,  and  that  would  have  no 
interest.  The  largest  and  the  most  perfect  alone  are 
important;  for  the  others  try  to  follow  their  path,  and 
it  is  in  the  first  alone  that  one  can  speak  of  a  true  sci- 
entific life. 

As  there  is  no  administrative  bond  between  all  these 
institutions;  and  as  they  live  and  develop  in  an  en- 
tirely independent  manner  one  from  another,  they  offer 
at  first  sight  a  great  diversity.  In  reality  the  resem- 
blances are  much  stronger  than  the  differences.  Therein 
is  a  striking  example  of  the  influence  of  the  environ- 
ment and  of  what  biologists  call  convergence.  Common 
surrounding  conditions  have  resulted  in  making  them 
uniform,  in  a  large  measure.1 

1  Nevertheless  you  must  not  think  there  is  an  identity  among  them.  One 
can  get  a  good  idea  of  their  individuality,  and  at  the  same  time  of  their  gen- 
eral traits,  from  the  very  interesting  book  by  E.  E.  Slosson,  Great  American 
Universities,  New  York,  McMillan,  1910. 


UNIVERSITIES  7 

First,  we  must  distinguish  two  great  groups,  inde- 
pendent universities  and  colleges,  and  state  universities. 

The  independent  universities,  which  are  frequently 
designated  under  the  name  endowed  universities,  are 
private  institutions,  administered  entirely  by  them- 
selves, after  the  fashion  of  an  industrial  or  commercial 
society,  by  means  of  a  council,  generally  called  a  board 
of  trustees.  Their  resources  come  from  tuition  paid  by 
their  students,  from  donations,  and  from  the  income  of 
their  funds  previously  consolidated,  or  endowment. 

These  private  institutions  are  situated,  for  the  most 
part,  in  the  eastern  United  States,  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
old  part,  in  the  states  which  constituted  the  thirteen 
English  colonies  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  which 
today  represent  the  traditional  part  of  the  country, 
that  which  is  the  depositary  of  English  civilization,  and 
which,  until  now,  has  given  its  impress  to  the  rest  of  the 
nation. 

The  most  important  are  the  following:  in  the  first 
place,  the  oldest,  Harvard,  at  Cambridge,  one  of  the 
cities  which  surround  Boston  and  form  now  a  unity 
with  it.  An  uninterrupted  tradition  links  the  college, 
founded  in  1636,  with  the  present  university.  It  is 
Harvard,  besides,  which  has  created  the  whole  tradi- 
tion of  the  American  college,  and  after  which  the 
younger  colleges  are  modeled.  Up  to  the  present  it 
has,  almost  always,  been  at  the  head  of  the  intellectual 
movement  in  America,  showing  the  way  in  most  of  the 
transformations  which  teaching  has  undergone.  This 
role  has  been  assured  to  it,  during  the  last  half-century, 
in  large  part  by  the  foresight  and  boldness  of  the  presi- 
dent who  directed  it  from  1869  to  1909,  Mr.  Charles 
W.  Eliot,  the  greatest  American  authority  on  matters 


8      UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  education.     Harvard  has  at  present  about  5000 
students.1 

Yale,  at  New  Haven,  Conn.,  the  rival  of  Harvard  in 
American  university  traditions,  dates  from  1701,  and 
has  also  had  a  large  part  in  the  scientific  progress  of  the 
country.  It  has  had  among  its  professors  the  geologist 
Dana,  the  palaeontologist  Marsh,  the  physicist  Gibbs. 
The  American  Journal  of  Science  was  founded  at 
Yale  in  1818.  Today  Yale  numbers  more  than  3000 
students. 

Three  other  of  the  most  important  universities  were 
founded  in  the  eighteenth  century;  that  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1740,  at  Philadelphia;  Princeton,  in  1751;  and 
Columbia  (under  the  name  of  King's  College)  at  New 
York,  in  1754. 

The  University  of  Pennsylvania  has  grown  parallel 
with  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  was  one  of  the  first 
to  diversify  itself  by  the  addition  of  special  schools.  It 
has  today  over  5000  students. 

Princeton  University,  situated  in  the  city  of  that 
name,  in  the  state  of  New  Jersey,  is  that  one  of  the 
large  universities  which  has  departed  least  from  the 
older  form  of  the  college;  hence  its  relatively  small 
number  of  students,  about  1500. 

Columbia  has  recently  taken,  with  New  York,  a 
prodigiously  rapid  spurt,  materially  and  scientifically. 
It  remained  a  relatively  unimportant  college  until 
about  thirty  years  ago,  when  it  took  the  name  of  uni- 
versity, in  1891.  Since  then  it  has  merged  with  several 
special  institutions  of  New  York,  has  become  diversi- 
fied in  the  extreme,  and  is  today,  with  its  6000  students, 

1  This  figure,  like  the  following  ones,  does  not  include  the  summer  schools, 
as  in  the  table  on  page  129. 


UNIVERSITIES  9 

its  enormous  resources,1  the  strength  of  its  professorial 
staff,  and  the  level  of  its  studies,  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful universities  of  the  world. 

Several  other  large  private  universities,  in  contrast 
with  the  preceding,  are  of  recent  creation. 

Johns  Hopkins,  founded  in  1875,  at  Baltimore,  thanks 
to  a  legacy  of  the  benefactor  whose  name  it  bears  —  a 
bequest  whose  amount,  $3,500,000,  seemed  enormous 
at  the  time  —  has  played  a  chief  role  in  American  higher 
education,  although  materially  it  is  rather  small.  It 
was  planned  in  a  radically  different  fashion  from  the 
ordinary  college,  as  an  establishment  for  true  higher 
learning,  for  its  role  was  to  encourage  and  organize 
original  scientific  research.  And  it  has  filled  this  part 
in  a  brilliant  manner,  and  has  also  contributed  above 
all  to  the  elevation  of  medical  instruction.  But  from 
having  withdrawn  itself  from  the  usual  conditions, 
Johns  Hopkins  has  been  deprived  of  the  great  afflux  of 
receipts  and  gifts  which  goes  to  the  other  universities, 
and  it  has  fallen  now  into  rather  serious  financial  dif- 
ficulties. One  may  see,  moreover,  that  in  the  table 
on  p.  147,  the  figures  relating  to  it  are  small.  Today 
it  has  scarcely  a  thousand  students.  Its  capital  is 
$6,265,000. 

1  These  are  the  consolidated  interest  bearing  funds  of  the  different 
universities: 

Harvard $22,000,000 

Yale 15,380,000 

Pennsylvania 5,000,000 

Princeton 5,000,000 

Columbia 83,000,000 

These  figures,  taken  from  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education 
for  1913-14,  do  not  include  the  value  of  lands,  buildings  or  equipment,  but 
only  the  liquidated  funds  or  endowment. 


10    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Cornell  University,  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  dates  from  1865. 
Founded  by  Ezra  Cornell,  and  admirably  situated  on  a 
wooded  plateau  where  it  covers  no  less  than  twelve 
hundred  acres,  it  has  become  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing universities,  in  particular  from  the  point  of  view  of 
biological  sciences,  and  of  their  application  to  agricul- 
ture. It  numbers  more  than  5000  students,  and  its 
consolidated  funds  are  more  than  $14,000,000. 

The  University  of  Chicago,  and  Leland  Stanford  Jr. 
University  at  Palo  Alto,  California,  represent  the  type 
of  independent  universities  in  the  West.  The  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago  is  today  of  the  very  first  rank,  in  numbers 
(more  than  6,000),  in  its  ample  equipment  and  labora- 
tories, in  the  high  character  of  its  advanced  instruc- 
tion, in  the  composition  of  its  faculty,  and  in  resources 
(its  productive  capital  is  over  $18,000,000).  It  has 
been  built  chiefly  from  gifts  of  Mr.  J.  D.  Rockefeller, 
which  have  amounted  to  $25,000,000. 

Leland  Stanford,  which  bears  the  name  of  its  founder, 
from  whom  it  has  received  $30,000,000,  has  been 
equipped  in  magnificent  fashion.  It  suffered  much 
from  the  great  earthquake  of  1906,  which  partly 
destroyed  it. 

It  would  be  proper  to  mention  still  other  private  uni- 
versities, besides  the  preceding.  I  will  limit  myself  to 
naming  one,  very  small  in  number  of  students,  intended 
to  be  an  institution  where  research  in  pure  science  was 
to  be  done  by  men  who  should  be  regarded  as  "fel- 
lows" rather  than  as  students.  It  is  Clark  University, 
founded  in  1887,  at  Worcester,  Mass.  It  has,  like  Johns 
Hopkins,  passed  through  difficulties  which  have  not  yet 
ended. 


UNIVERSITIES  11 

The  state  universities  are  differing  from  the  preced- 
ing in  origin,  and  in  many  respects,  in  spirit.  They 
draw  their  resources,  not  from  individuals,  but  from  the 
state.  Each  western  state  has,  in  a  general  way,  its 
university,  which  it  supports  in  a  very  liberal  fashion, 
through  its  general  budget.  More  than  eleven  of  these 
universities  have  subsidies  of  more,  and  often  much 
more,  than  one  million  dollars. 

The  origin  of  most  of  them  goes  back  to  the  Morrill 
Act,  passed  by  Congress  in  1862,  which  gave  to  the 
several  states  considerable  areas  of  public  lands,  the 
income,  or  the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  which  must 
be  devoted  to  education,  principally  to  the  teaching  of 
agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts. 

Thus  arose  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Col- 
leges, most  of  which,  by  expanding,  have  become  the 
present  state  universities.  Some  have  absorbed  an  al- 
ready existing  college;  that  was  the  case  in  California; 
others  have  been  incorporated  into  a  university  properly 
so-called.  That  is  the  case  of  Cornell  University,  in  the 
state  of  New  York,  which  has,  consequently,  an  inter- 
mediate character  between  private  and  state  universities. 
Some,  in  the  East,  have  remained  independent,  under 
their  original  name,  like  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural 
College,  at  Amherst,  which  has  remained  specially  bio- 
logical and  agricultural. 

Through  their  origin,  the  state  universities  have  had 
at  the  beginning  some  very  utilitarian  tendencies. 
They  have,  before  all  else,  striven  for  practical  applica- 
tion and  teaching.  Real  culture  has  only  little  by  little 
made  a  place  for  itself  in  them,  and  is  still  often  rather 
cramped,  and  much  of  the  teaching  smacks  of  the  soil. 


12     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Being  sustained  by  the  state,  they  are  more  demo- 
cratic in  spirit,  and  more  open  to  all  classes,  by  the 
mere  fact  that  their  teaching  is  free,  at  least  for  citi- 
zens of  the  state  in  which  each  of  them  is  established. 
Their  student  population  is  large,  chiefly  because  they 
are  less  exacting  as  to  the  knowledge  required  of  their 
pupils  at  entrance.  But  as  they  grow  larger,  they  tend 
to  approach  the  private  universities  of  the  East  in 
classic  tradition,  and  at  the  same  to  rise  toward  pure 
scientific  research. 

Here  are  a  few  summary  remarks  about  the  most 
important:  The  oldest,  that  of  Virginia,  founded  in  1819 
by  Jefferson,  with  views  which  were  far  in  advance  of 
the  time,  has  been  retarded  in  its  development,  like  all 
the  South. 

The  University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann  Arbor,  dates 
from  1841.  It  is  one  of  those  that  have  attained  the 
highest  level  and  the  most  considerable  development. 
It  has  nearly  6400  students. 

The  University  of  Wisconsin,  at  Madison,  was 
founded  in  1849.  It  has  today  5000  students.  It  is  in 
a  period  of  rapid  development  and  has  shown  a  remark- 
able audacity  in  the  breadth  of  its  program,  especially 
in  respect  of  popular  instruction. 

The  University  of  California,  magnificently  situated 
at  Berkeley,  on  the  slopes  which  border,  on  the  east, 
San  Francisco  Bay,  facing  the  Golden  Gate,  has  become 
one  of  the  largest  in  numbers  (more  than  6000  students), 
and  one  of  the  most  interesting  through  its  teaching  and 
its  publications. 

The  University  of  Illinois,  at  Urbana,  has  an  almost 
equal  importance  (5000  to  6000  students— it  had  but 
500  in  1890),  and  has  laboratories  very  broadly  planned. 


UNIVERSITIES  13 

The  University  of  Minnesota,  at  Minneapolis,  has 
about  4500  students.1 

These  are  the  principal  state  universities,  and  one 
may  see  how  ample  their  resources  are.  I  should  men- 
tion, besides  them,  those  of  Missouri,  Iowa,  Ohio,  and 
others. 

There  is  without  question  a  group  rivalry  between 
private  and  state  universities.  Under  the  similar  con- 
ditions of  the  environment,  they  are  coming  to  a  very 
general  resemblance,  but  their  tendencies  are  never- 
theless divergent.  The  private  universities  of  the  East 
have  hitherto  represented  real  culture  in  an  incontest- 
able fashion,  and  have  shown  the  way.  The  state 
universities,  by  their  origin  and  tendencies,  have  ac- 
celerated the  incorporation  beside  classical  subjects, 
and  the  development  in  advanced  instruction,  of  the 
applied  sciences  much  needed  in  modern  society. 

The  distinction  between  state  and  private  univer- 
sities is  the  most  important,  and  is  the  one  which  I  wish 
to  point  out  here.  I  shall  note,  however,  in  a  very  brief 
way,  that  among  the  private  establishments,  some  are 
like  the  state  universities,  without  allegiance  to  a  par- 
ticular sect  —  undenominational,  as  they  are  called  — 
while  the  others  are  under  the  control  of  the  church 
which  has  founded  them.  All  the  large  universities  be- 
long to  the  first  category.  In  the  second,  a  special 
group  is  constituted  by  Catholic  establishments,  and  in 

1  Here  is  the  summarized  table  of  the  subsidies  which  these  universities 
have  received  from  their  respective  states,  in  1913-14. 

For  New  Equipment  For  Current  Expense 

California $350,000  $1,220,000 

Illinois 650,000  1,636,000 

Michigan 350,000  1,038,000 

Minnesota 941,000  1,420,000 

Wisconsin ....        343,000  1,811,000 


14     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

particular  the  colleges  of  the  Jesuit  order.  These  in- 
stitutions have  a  history  of  their  own,  quite  independent 
of  the  evolution  of  American  universities  properly  so- 
called,  and  I  shall  leave  them  completely  aside. 

The  sectarian  origin  of  many  colleges,  and  the  caprice 
of  private  foundations,  explain  how  the  same  city  may 
have  several  universities,  a  fact  which  does  not  fail  to 
surprise  us  at  first.  To  cite  but  a  few  examples,  Wash- 
ington has  no  less  than  four  —  George  Washington 
University,  the  Catholic  University  of  America,  George- 
town University,  likewise  Catholic,  and  Howard  Uni- 
versity for  negroes ;  and  three  more  colleges.  New  York, 
besides  Columbia,  possesses  another  large  and  impor- 
tant institution,  New  York  University,  large  municipal 
colleges  (City  College  for  men  and  Hunter  College  for 
Women),  a  Catholic  university  (Fordham),  without 
counting  the  colleges  of  Brooklyn  and  the  school  of 
medicine  of  Cornell  University.  Philadelphia  has  like- 
wise, besides  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  several 
colleges,  one  being  Catholic  and  another  Jewish. 
Chicago,  besides  the  university  of  that  name,  is  the 
seat  of  the  Faculties  of  medicine  of  Illinois  and  North- 
western Universities,  of  an  important  technological 
school  (Armour  Institute),  and  finally  of  two  Catholic 
universities.  Boston,  besides  Harvard  across  the  river, 
has  Boston  University,  which  is  sectarian,  and  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  the  greatest 
engineering  school  of  the  United  States.  Tufts  College 
and  Wellesley  College  are  in  its  immediate  neighbor- 
hood. 

From  the  point  of  view  which  occupies  us  here,  and 
outside  of  two  or  three  particular  cases,  the  establish- 
ments attached  to  a  particular  sect  have  no  real  im- 


UNIVERSITIES  15 

portance,  and  it  will  suffice  us  to  consider  hereafter  the 
universities  on  which  I  have  commented  in  this  first 
chapter.1  We  are  now  going  to  study  their  life  under  its 
different  aspects. 

1  I  shall  only  be  concerned  with  the  universities  of  the  United  States. 
Nevertheless  I  shall  indicate  that  the  Canadian  universities  are  developing 
in  a  quite  parallel  fashion,  and  have,  moreover,  very  close  relations  with 
those  of  the  Union.  The  chief  are  McGill  University  at  Montreal  and  the 
University  of  Toronto. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  BEGINNINGS:    FROM  COLLEGE  TO  UNIVERSITY 

The  classical  college  and  the  Bachelor's  degree.  Its  evolution  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  elective  system.  The  professional  schools.  The  intro- 
duction of  scientific  research  and  the  graduate  schools.  German  influence. 
The  equilibrium  between  the  college  and  the  superadded  parts. 

A  LTHOUGH  America  is  the  New  World,  the  uni- 
•**•  versities  as  we  see  them  today,  are  the  resultants 
of  very  ancient  traditions  and  customs. 

All  that  has  been  introduced  recently  has  been  set 
into  the  original  framework,  and  adapted  to  the  past. 
In  France  it  would  not  have  been  done  so.  In  a  strongly 
centralized  and  bureaucratic  country  like  ours,  univer- 
sity institutions  were  created  from  almost  nothing  at 
all  by  Napoleon.  But  this  method  of  his  is  not  the  most 
favorable  for  imparting  to  the  universities  real  vitality. 
Yet  a  progressive  evolution  is  a  fatal  necessity,  in  case 
of  private  institutions,  like  the  American  universities 
of  the  East,  the  first  in  time  and  the  models  for  the 
others.  They  reflect  a  society  and  its  history,  and  are 
a  heritage  from  English  life. 

Thus  in  order  to  understand  them,  we  must  first  re- 
call their  origin.  As  has  already  been  said,  the  uni- 
versity is  a  metamorphosis  of  the  college,  or  rather  an 
epigenesis  of  it.  The  college  still  subsists,  it  is  the  axis 
about  which  the  other  parts  have  been  articulated; 
equilibrium  is  not  yet  completely  established  between 
them  and  it.  It  is  therefore  the  story  of  the  college 
which  must  first  be  given. 

16 


UNIVERSITIES  17 

It  goes  back  to  the  first  years  of  the  New  England 
colonies.  In  1620  the  Mayflower  brought  the  Pilgrims 
to  the  Massachusetts  coast.  Sixteen  years  later,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  city  which  is  now  Boston,  within 
the  town  which  was  beginning  to  rise  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Charles  River,  they  created  a  college,  like  those 
of  the  mother  country.  And  as  many  of  the  colonists 
came  from  Cambridge,  they  gave  the  same  name  to  the 
new  town  where  they  placed  their  establishment.  There- 
fore it  is  indeed  the  English  college  of  Cambridge  and 
Oxford  which  is  the  prototype  of  the  American  College. 
Harvard  took  the  name  of  the  first  of  its  benefactors, 
the  Reverend  John  Harvard,  who  died  in  1637,  leaving 
his  library  and  a  sum  of  £600,  the  first  contribution 
to  its  funds. 

It  was  only  in  1701  that  the  second  college  of  the 
American  colonies  was  founded,  Yale,  in  Connecticut, 
at  New  Haven.  Princeton,  Columbia,  and  Pennsylvania 
date  from  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There 
were  eleven  colleges  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, eleven  others  were  founded  between  that 
event  and  1800,  33  from  1800  to  1830,  180  from  1830  to 
1865,  and  236  from  1865  to  1900. 

These  eastern  colleges,  today  of  an  entirely  private 
character,  were  in  origin  products  of  the  community. 
Harvard  was  created  by  the  Massachusetts  General 
Court;  it  was  governed  by  a  committee  comprising  at 
first  the  governor  and  lieutenant  governor  of  the  com- 
monwealth, and  clergymen  of  the  towns  near  Boston. 
This  committee  has  been  subdivided  into  two  since 
1650,  one  composed  of  seven  persons,  including  the 
president  and  the  treasurer  of  the  college,  which  has 
been  perpetuated  down  to  our  time,  under  the  name  of 


18     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  Corporation  (or  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Har- 
vard College),  and  it  has  retained  all  the  powers  of  ini- 
tiative, of  executive,  and  of  finance.  The  other  has 
become  an  advisory  council,  which  is  today  the  Board 
of  Overseers.  This  duality  at  Harvard  is  moreover  a 
special  exception.  The  true  and  more  general  evolu- 
tion has  consisted  in  the  gradual  elimination  from  these 
councils  of  the  representatives  of  the  government  who 
figured  in  them  ex  officio. 

From  the  beginning,  following  the  English  custom, 
the  colleges  could  acquire  property,  and  they  became 
more  and  more  independent  in  the  management  of  it. 
At  their  distant  origins,  the  first  universities,  though 
private  today,  were  thus  in  a  certain  measure  state 
institutions. 

The  essential  function  of  these  colleges  was,  and 
remained  until  after  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  intellectual  training  of  clergymen.  The 
members  of  their  councils  were  for  a  long  time  almost 
exclusively  official  personages  and  ministers  of  religion. 
The  great  majority  of  their  students  went  into  the 
Church;  75  per  cent  at  Yale  for  example  (the  propor- 
tion today  is  3  to  4  per  cent).  These  colleges  long 
remained  of  very  modest  dimensions.  About  1830  Har- 
vard numbered  10  professors  and  about  200  students. 
Columbia  had  6  professors  and  125  students.  That  also 
explains  why  the  majority  of  these  institutions,  chiefly 
theological  in  design,  were  founded  by  or  originated 
from  churches.  The  clergymen  were  moreover,  with 
the  lawyers_  and  to  some  extent  the  physicians,  the 
only  classesjn  American  society  of  that  time  who  pos- 
sessed anything  like  a  classical  education. 


UNIVERSITIES  19 

College  teaching  was  conceived  with  a  view  to  these 
needs.  The  pupils  lived  there  together,  as  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge.  Their  studies  were  all  of  the  same 
character  and  for  the  most  part  classical.  They  dealt 
with  English  and  the  ancient  languages  (Greek,  Latin, 
Hebrew)  with  a  little  mathematics.  They  were  little 
by  little  stereotyped  into  an  unchangeable  program 
which  was  called  the  curriculum.  They  were  spread 
over  four  years,  designated  by  the  traditional  names 
of  freshman,  sophomore,  junior,  and  senior.  At  the  end 
of  four  years  the  student  left  college  with  the  diploma 
or  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  A.B.  After  another  year's 
study  they  obtained  the  A.M.  That  was  the  summum 
of  liberal  education  in  America  until  a  half-century  ago. 
The  subjects  of  the  curriculum  had  acquired  a  sort  of 
nobility  in  contrast  with  all  others. 

Only  in  the  nineteenth  century  did  the  development 
of  industry  lead  gradually  to  the  creation  of  special 
schools,  preparatory  to  the  professions.  Thus  were 
organized  one  by  one,  at  Harvard,  at  Philadelphia,  and 
at  New  York,  schools  of  medicine,  of  law,  and  of  theol- 
ogy; but  they  remained  a  long  time  rudimentary. 

Schools  of  applied  sciences  were  also  created.  About 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Harvard  and 
Yale  organized,  to  this  end,  in  close  connection  with 
the  college,  yet  distinct  from  it,  the  former  the  Lawrence 
Scientific  School,  the  latter  the  Sheffield  Scientific 
School,  where  studies  lead  to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Science,  S.B.  For  a  long  time  —  even  today  —  this  de- 
gree had  not  the  prestige  of  the  A.B. 

As  has  already  been  said,  it  was  because  the  colleges 
refused  to  give  to  applied  scientific  studies  a  place  which 


20     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

had  become  necessary,  that  Congress  determined  to 
found  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and  mechanic  arts.1 
It  was  likewise  in  response  to  this  same  need  that  a 
series  of  engineering  schools  was  created,  independent 
of  the  colleges;  and  in  particular,  in  1865,  at  Boston, 
the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  which  grew 
rapidly. 

However,  as  scientific  instruction  was  making  its  way 
in  the  college  itself,  the  old  curriculum  broke  down, 
studies  were  diversified,  and  the  elective  system  was 
substituted  for  the  preceding  uniformity.  Mr.  Charles 
W.  Eliot  at  Harvard,  contributed  much  to  this  new 
development.  The  colleges  began  to  organize  very 
varied  courses  of  instruction.  Each  student  chooses 
from  them,  according  to  his  tastes  and  his  needs,  a 
given  number  of  courses,  extending  over  four  years,  and 
the  whole  of  which  formed  the  minimum  required  for 
the  Bachelor's  degree.  This  system  has  certainly  been 
carried  to  excess.  The  colleges,  in  friendly  emulation, 
compete  in  offering  programs  as  broad  and  varied  as 
possible,  but  without  much  coordination,  and  the  stu- 
dents' choice  was  often  made  rather  with  a  view  to  the 
least  effort  than  to  the  coherence  and  strength  of  their 
course. 

Today,  at  least  in  the  good  universities,  there  is  a 
check  on  this  freedom  of  choice.  It  is  regulated.  There 
are  obligatory  fundamental  studies,  especially  in  the 
first  years  of  college.  But  the  possibilities  of  choice  re- 
main very  vast;  the  more  so  because,  even  in  secondary 
education,  at  the  high  school,  they  are  rather  numerous. 

Parallel  to  the  diversification  of  college  studies, 
schools  furnishing  the  knowledge  necessary  for  definite 

1  See  ch.  x,  p.  116. 


UNIVERSITIES  21 

professions  grew  up  beside  the  college.  The  teaching  in 
them  is  no  longer  entirely  disinterested  and  purely 
cultural,  as  in  the  classical  college.  These  schools  are 
generally  called  professional  schools  or  colleges.  They 
are  schools  of  theology,  law,  medicine,  colleges  of  en- 
gineering, agriculture,  or  commerce.  The  unity  of  the 
college  has  been  definitively  broken  by  them;  and  a 
new  problem  has  arisen :  that  of  the  relations  between 
them  and  it.  This  evolution  has  been  accomplished,  in 
unequal  degrees  in  different  cases,  and  is  today  one  of 
the  chief  elements  of  diversification  in  the  universities. 
Princeton,  for  example,  has  no  professional  schools. 
Columbia  has  a  very  numerous  series  of  them,  among 
which  appears  even  a  school  of  journalism.  We  shall 
return  to  each  class  with  some  detail. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  preceding  transformation 
was  being  accomplished,  an  addition  of  a  different  order 
was  being  made  to  the  old  college —  that  of  the  Grad- 
uate Schools,  and  more  particularly  of  the  Graduate 
School  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  The  spirit  of  this  addition 
was  the  introduction  of  original  scientific  research  into 
the  normal  framework  of  the  university. 

Research  had  no  place  in  the  older  college  for  the 
students,  nor  even  for  the  professors.  The  impulse 
given  by  a  few  men,  in  the  first  rank  of  whom  must  be 
mentioned  Louis  Agassiz  and  Asa  Gray,  at  Harvard, 
was  the  point  of  departure  of  this  new  era.  Agassiz, 
who  had  been  given  a  professorship,  thanks  to  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School,  had 
founded  in  1860,  at  Harvard,  the  Museum  of  Compara- 
tive Zoology,  and  had  actively  developed  it  through  his 
voyages  of  exploration.  He  had  grouped  around  him 


22     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

quite  a  nucleus  of  young  men,  to  whom  he  had  given 
the  taste  for  original  research.  The  palaeontologists 
likewise,  a  little  later,  Marsh  at  Yale,  Cope  at  Phila- 
delphia, as  well  as  J.  Leidy,  attracted  pupils.  But 
scientific  resources  in  America  were  insufficient  for  the 
pioneers  in  almost  all  branches  of  science,  and  the  young 
men  came  to  Europe  for  their  apprenticeship. 

England,  in  spite  of  the  community  of  language,  did 
not,  at  the  time,  offer  them  favorable  scientific  in- 
stitutions. Cambridge  and  Oxford  still  remained  con- 
fined to  classical  studies  and  to  their  old  traditions.  In 
France  the  Faculties  were  in  the  rudimentary  state  to 
which  Napoleon  I  had  reduced  them.  The  great  scien- 
tific men,  like  Pasteur,  Claude  Bernard,  Sainte-Claire 
Deville,  did  not  have  laboratories  in  which  they  could 
have  numerous  collaborators.  They  understood  the 
necessity  for  them,  and  asked  for  them  insistently,1  but 
without  success,  invoking,  since  1867,  in  terms  which 
have  lost  nothing  of  their  worth,  the  example  of 
Germany. 

Youthful  Americans  were  naturally  drawn  to  Ger- 
many, because  they  found  there  all  the  necessary 
conditions  for  their  apprenticeship,  no  examinations 
constituting,  as  with  us,  too  numerous  barriers;  the 
possibility  of  winning  easily  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  which  they  carried  back  with  them  as  a 
palpable  sanction  of  their  work  abroad;  finally,  well- 
furnished  laboratories  and  seminars,  in  which  the 
spirit  of  research  was  general,  and  the  professors  were 
devoted  to  their  pupils.  Already,  about  1825,  the  Liebig 

1  See  the  "Report  on  Physiology"  made  by  Claude  Bernard  for  the 
Exposition  of  1867,  and  Pasteur's  requests  to  Napoleon  III,  in  Vallery  Radot, 
La  Vie  de  Pasteur,  pp.  204-206. 


UNIVERSITIES  23 

laboratory  had  begun  to  attract  foreigners.  We  cannot 
too  much  regret  that  at  the  moment  when  Prussia,  in 
1811,  founded  the  University  of  Berlin,  and  directed  it 
toward  original  research,  Napoleon  I  conceived  the 
university  faculties  as  mere  bureaus  for  state  diplomas. 
In  the  relations  between  America  and  Germany,  the 
universities  have  been  a  factor  of  the  first  order.  Ger- 
many has  drawn  from  them  not  only  important  moral 
support,  through  the  influence  which  she  has  temporar- 
ily exercised  in  a  profound  fashion  on  American  men- 
tality, but  also,  considerable  material  profit.  It  would 
be  puerile  to  try  to  deny  that  she  owes  this  result  to  the 
development  of  her  laboratories  and  to  the  systematic 
direction  of  her  universities  toward  original  research. 

During  more  than  forty  years,  a  good  part  of  the 
most  intellectual  American  youths,  those  who  hoped  to 
fill  the  chairs  of  new  or  enlarged  universities,  and  who 
were  in  their  time  to  shape  the  following  generations, 
have  gone  to  finish  their  education,  and  above  all  to 
begin  research,  in  Germany.  They  received  a  profound 
impress  there.  At  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury, the  vision  of  things  scientific,  in  America,  was 
through  German  ideas.  Charles  S.  Minot,  professor  of 
embryology  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  expressed 
this  fact  in  a  very  categorical  manner,  speaking  of  him- 
self at  the  beginning  of  the  opening  lecture  of  the  course 
he  gave  as  Exchange  Professor  at  the  University  of 
Berlin,  in  1912.  "Forty  years  ago,"  he  said,  "a  young 
American,  twenty  years  of  age,  decided  to  devote  him- 
self to  science.  He  soon  recognized  that  a  young  natu- 
ralist was  far  from  finding  the  necessary  facilities  and 
support  in  America  at  that  time.  Therefore  he  resolved 
to  come  to  Europe.  He  found  in  Germany  teachers 


24     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

fired  with  sacred  zeal,  and  laboratories,  and  so  it  hap- 
pened that,  through  his  German  scientific  education, 
he  became  an  intellectual  subject  of  Germany"  1  In  the 
American  universities  there  is  scarcely  a  professor  be- 
longing to  approximately  the  same  or  the  following 
generation,  who  has  not  worked  in  the  German  labora- 
tories and  who  has  not  been  profoundly  influenced  by 
the  idea  of  the  scientific  supremacy  of  Germany.  This 
has  become  a  truism  which  is  found  endlessly  expressed 
in  the  most  diverse  forms,  in  speeches,  toasts,  and 
otherwise. 

We  must  be  frank  to  recognize  that  this  influence 
exercised  by  Germany,  however  excessive  it  may  be, 
rested  on  solid  bases.  The  Americans  have  learned  much 
from  Germany;  they  could  bring  back,  for  many  sci- 
ences, models  which  they  only  had  to  adapt  to  their 
needs.  That  is  past  now.  The  apogee  of  German 
scientific  influence  had  already  passed  before  the  war. 
The  young  American  no  longer  needed,  in  general,  to 
go  to  Europe  to  study.  He  had  laboratories,  libraries 
and  guides  at  home.  But  the  habit  begun,  the  tradition 
spread,  made  many  others  take  the  same  road  as  their 
elder  brothers.  The  vitality  of  the  German  laboratories 
was  thus  assured  for  a  notable  part,  by  the  foreign 
patronage  which  attended  them,  in  particular  by  that 
of  the  Americans.  Seeing  Germany  especially  through 
science,  the  Americans  had  acquired  tenacious  illusions 
concerning  its  general  mentality,  which  the  war  has 
dissipated,  and  which  had  completely  disappeared  be- 
fore the  United  States  came  to  direct  intervention. 
The  era  of  regular  migrations  to  Berlin,  Leipzig,  or 
Heidelberg  is  doubtless  closed  for  a  long  time. 

1  Science,  December  6,  1912. 


UNIVERSITIES  25 

College  remained  the  necessary  foundation  for  stu- 
dents who  wished  to  undertake  really,  higher  studies 
and  research.  The  school  of  advanced  studies  was,  then, 
purely  and  simply  added;  the  students  were  men  who 
had  previously  taken  the  Bachelor's  degree,  that  is  to 
say,  graduates;  and  it  received  the  name  of  the  Grad- 
uate School  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  It  covers  the  field  of 
our  Faculties  1  of  Letters  and  of  Sciences,  and  extends 
the  college  in  all  its  branches. 

But  not  every  college  has  such  a  school.  It  exists  in 
scarcely  more  than  thirty  universities.  It  is  best  rep- 
resented in  those  I  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

The  foregoing  evolution,  from  college  to  university, 
has  broken  the  unity  of  the  former;  and  the  relations 
of  the  parts,  in  the  new  organism,  have  not  yet  arrived 
at  the  state  of  equilibrium.  There  is  a  college  crisis, 
which  we  see  frequently  denounced  by  the  partisans  of 
the  tradition. 

The  classical  college,  in  fact,  with  its  four  years  of 
disinterested  culture,  preparing  directly  for  no  career, 
and  holding  the  student  till  he  is  twenty-two,  is  too  long 
a  stage  if  one  is  to  enter  on  professional  studies  after- 
ward. Moreover,  the  professional  schools  which  require 
a  Bachelor's  degree  for  entrance  are  exceptions,  and  in- 
deed recent  exceptions,  even  in  such  a  case  as  that  of 
medicine,  where  the  Bachelor's  degree  is  theoretically 
required.  There  again  Harvard  and  Johns  Hopkins 
have  shown  the  way.  It  was  to  avoid  the  roundabout 
way  through  college  that  special  engineering  schools, 

1  I  should  remark  here  once  for  all,  that  the  word  "Faculty"  is  not  ab- 
solutely equivalent  to  ours.  It  designates,  in  fact,  almost  exclusively  the 
body  of  professors.  The  institution  is  called  a  "School,"  e.g.,  school  of 
medicine,  school  of  law.  In  a  college,  the  Faculty  is  the  whole  body  of  the 
instructors. 


26     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

such  for  example  as  the  Institute  of  Technology  at 
Boston,  were  created  —  which  takes  its  students  at 
eighteen,  exacting  less  knowledge  than  for  entrance  to 
Harvard,  and  brings  them  to  their  goal  in  four  years. 
If  the  college  kept  rigorously  its  traditional  four  years, 
it  would  be  deserted  by  many.  It  must  therefore 
shorten  its  studies  and  combine  them  with  professional 
courses.  It  must  bring  about  a  more  complete  inter- 
penetration  of  college  and  professional  schools.  This  is 
the  change  which  is  being  accomplished  more  and  more, 
still  meeting  with  a  certain  resistance. 

The  shortening  of  the  college  course  can  scarcely  re- 
sult otherwise  than  to  the  detriment  of  the  last  two 
years.  But,  its  defenders  say  very  justly,  those  are  the 
most  essential  for  the  training  of  the  mind.  The  true 
solution  of  the  problem  would  lie  in  an  improvement  of 
secondary  education,  which  should  bring  back  to  the 
high  school  the  present  first  two  years  of  college,  and 
would  bring  the  student  entering  the  university  at 
eighteen  to  the  state  of  maturity  and  knowledge  which 
he  does  not  reach  today  before  twenty,  when  he  becomes 
a  junior.  This  view  has  been  maintained  by  many  uni- 
versity presidents  and  professors. 

American  secondary  education  is  very  short.  It  does 
not  begin  till  fourteen,  and  covers  only  four  years.  Be- 
sides, the  studies  are  less  tyrannical  than  in  France  or 
Germany.  The  adolescent  has  much  more  leisure, 
which  he  can  spend  in  games  and  sports.  This  pro- 
duces a  much  more  vigorous  youth.  But  from  the  intel- 
lectual point  of  view,  there  is  an  undeniable  delay,  and 
it  surely  seems  that  a  better  ordering  of  primary  and 
secondary  studies  would  resolve  the  difficulty  at  least 
in  part. 


UNIVERSITIES  27 

The  American  university,  in  a  general  way,  is  still 
in  a  period  of  transition  and  of  formation.  The  past 
persists,  and  remains  its  solid  foundation;  all  that  has 
been  added  to  it  and  forms  the  superstructure,  is  hetero- 
geneous, and  the  relations  of  the  parts  among  them- 
selves and  with  the  whole  have  not  yet  assumed  a 
character  of  definitive  stability.  The  working  out  of 
this,  is  one  of  the  chief  differences  between  the  several 
universities.  In  each  it  has  resulted  from  particular 
circumstances  and  has  taken  place  in  a  more  or  less 
special  manner. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  EXTERNAL  ASPECT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 

The  campus.    Harvard,  the  Yard  and  the  various  additions.    Columbia. 
Princeton.    Berkeley.    Cornell.    Contrast  with  the  French  universities. 

AFTER  having  looked  at  American  universities  and 
the  prominent  features  of  their  historical  develop- 
ment, in  a  general  and  abstract  way,  let  us  now  ap- 
proach them  in  their  concrete  reality,  as  they  appear 
to  us  in  their  location  and  external  appearance.  A  few 
examples  will  be  the  best  means  of  giving  an  idea  of 
them. 

Let  us  go  first  to  Harvard.  Cambridge  had  remained 
until  a  short  time  ago,  a  peaceful  town,  with  frame 
houses,  each  with  its  yard,  in  the  midst  of  century-old 
trees.  The  yards  are  disappearing,  and  tall  stone  apart- 
ment houses,  built  close  to  one  another,  are  little  by 
little  replacing  the  frame  dwellings.  The  Gipsy  Moth, 
imported  from  Europe  —  without  the  parasites  which 
there  limit  its  multiplication,  having  crossed  to  America 
at  the  same  time  —  has  propagated  itself  in  a  disastrous 
manner  in  New  England,  destroying  the  woods,  and  in 
particular  killing  many  fine  trees  in  Cambridge.  Har- 
vard today  is  no  longer  in  a  sylvan  site.  Little  by  little  it 
has  been  surrounded  by  the  less  happy  setting  of  the  city. 

The  old  Harvard  of  the  College  —  which  is  generally 
called  the  campus  in  American  universities,  but  which 
is  usually  designated  here  by  the  English  equivalent, 
yard  —  is  a  large  quadrilateral  partly  surrounded  by 
walls  and  tall  iron  fences,  partly  by  a  plain  wooden 


UNIVERSITIES  29 

fence,  which  allows  glimpses  of  its  trees,  over  which 
many  gray  squirrels  scamper,  and  of  its  lawns,  in  the 
midst  of  which  rise  the  buildings  or  halls  of  the  univer- 
sity. The  latter  are  of  brick,  severe  in  aspect,  the  oldest 
without  ornament,  following  the  Puritan  tradition;  the 
old  dormitories  where  the  students  live,  the  chapel,  the 
administration  building  (University  Hall);  the  Presi- 
dent's house,  rebuilt  but  a  few  years  ago  by  the  present 
President,  Mr.  A.  L.  Lowell;  a  group  of  buildings  hous- 
ing various  departments  of  the  university,  Sever  Hall, 
Emerson  Hall,  the  school  of  architecture;  finally,  the 
monumental  Widener  Memorial  Library,  dedicated  in 
June  1915.  It  is  a  city,  with  open  spaces  and  well- 
ordered  shade,  but  in  which  for  a  long  time  there  has 
been  no  room  for  new  buildings. 

Thus,  many  years  ago,  Harvard  began  to  expand. 
Memorial  Hall,  facing  the  Yard,  a  large  building  sur- 
mounted by  a  tower,  was  erected  in  memory  of  the 
Harvard  men  who  fell  on  the  battlefields  of  the  Civil 
War.  It  was  not  thought  that  life  should  be  excluded 
from  this  memorial  monument.  One  of  the  wings  is  the 
large  dining  hall  of  the  university,  where  one  thousand 
students  may  dine  together;  the  other  is  arranged  as 
a  theatre  (Sanders  Theatre),  in  which  until  recently  the 
presentation  of  diplomas  at  the  end  of  the  year  took 
place,  and  where  from  time  to  time  dramatic  perform- 
ances are  given.  I  saw  there  one  of  the  farewell  perform- 
ances of  a  great  English  actor,  Sir  Forbes  Robertson, 
playing  Hamlet,  in  the  simple  setting  of  the  time  of 
Shakespeare.  On  such  an  occasion,  the  university  re- 
ceives its  guests. 

Beyond,  in  the  still  open  part  of  the  city,  are  dis- 
persed along  shady  avenues  a  number  of  university 


30      UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

buildings;  laboratories,  the  Museum  of  Comparative 
Zoology  (Agassiz  Museum),  and  Museum  of  Ethnog- 
raphy (Peabody  Museum),  Law  School,  Divinity 
School;  in  another  direction  on  the  banks  of  the  Charles 
River,  the  vast  new  dormitories  which  Harvard  has  just 
built  in  order  to  keep  its  freshmen  together,  and  cement 
their  comradeship  by  life  in  common,  from  the  time  of 
their  entrance  into  the  university. 

One  cannot  help  regretting  that  instead  of  develop- 
ing somewhat  by  chance,  outside  of  the  Yard,  Harvard 
could  not  have  reserved  for  itself,  when  there  was  yet 
time,  all  the  land  which  separated  it  from  the  river, 
and  into  which  the  city  has  now  extended  its  narrow 
and  ugly  streets. 

On  the  other  side  of  Charles  River,  facing  the  fresh- 
man dormitories,  a  wide  vacant  space,  Soldiers  Field, 
is  used  for  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Harvard  regiment  - 
they  have  been  active  for  two  years  —  and,  on  one  side 
of  it  is  the  Stadium,  an  open  air  amphitheatre,  on  the 
tiers  of  which  more  than  25,000  spectators  may  be 
seated  to  view  the  games.  On  the  banks  of  the  Charles 
the  boathouses  complete  this  group  devoted  to  physi- 
cal exercise,  which  is  so  important  in  all  the  American 
universities. 

But  what  remains  crowded  around  the  primitive 
nucleus  is  still  only  a  fraction  of  Harvard.  At  a  little 
distance  in  Cambridge  are  the  buildings  and  dormi- 
tories of  Radcliffe  College,  for  women,  distinct  from 
Harvard,  but  affiliated  with  it.  Crossing  the  Common, 
characteristic  of  all  the  old  Puritan  towns  of  New  Eng- 
land, we  reach  the  Observatory  and  the  Botanical 
Gardens,  with  the  building  which  shelters  the  Gray 
Herbarium,  founded  by  Asa  Gray. 


UNIVERSITIES  31 

In  Boston,  Harvard  has  its  magnificent  Medical 
School,  at  Long  wood,  in  the  hospital  section.  Rebuilt 
in  1907,  it  consists  of  five  large  marble  buildings  form- 
ing three  sides  of  a  rectangular  court. 

Finally,  beyond  Boston,  at  Forest  Hills,  Harvard  has 
other  dependencies;  Bussey  Institution,  at  first  a 
school  of  agriculture,  is  today  an  institute  of  applied 
biology  in  which  experimental  heredity  especially  is 
studied. 

Adjoining  is  the  Arnold  Arboretum,  a  magnificent 
park  of  125  acres.  Further  away  at  Petersham,  Har- 
vard owns  a  forest  of  1000  acres,  which  is  a  practical 
school  of  forestry.  Besides  these  annexes  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Boston,  there  are  more  distant  ramifica- 
tions: a  camp  for  students  of  mining  engineering  in 
Vermont,  another  camp,  covering  nearly  750  acres,  in 
New  Hampshire,  where  civil  engineers  serve  their  ap- 
prenticeship in  the  study  of  topography  and  in  laying 
out  railway  lines;  finally  a  biological  station  in  the 
Bermudas. 

Therefore  Harvard  is  not  a  monumental  but  unex- 
panding  building,  confined  in  the  unchangeable  sur- 
roundings of  a  city.  It  failed,  nevertheless,  to  grow  in 
time  to  remain  entirely  concentrated. 

Columbia  College,  stifled  in  old  New  York,  emigrated 
exactly  twenty  years  ago,  upon  becoming  a  university, 
to  Morningside  Heights,  and  is  once  more  already  shut 
in  within  the  city.  Built  almost  at  one  time,  and  after 
a  unified  plan,  it  has  buildings  of  homogeneous  style 
and  some  open  spaces  for  building  still  remain.  But 
when  its  prodigiously  rapid  growth  is  considered,  it 
seems  that  it  will  soon  be  in  straits  again,  and  that  it 


32    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

will  perhaps  think  of  finding  a  new  location.  Never- 
theless it  is  at  the  time  adapted  as  completely  as  pos- 
sible to  the  life  of  a  university  in  a  great  city.  Each  class 
of  services  has  its  own  building  and  its  separate  en- 
trance. The  museum  of  archaeology  is  not  near  the 
chemical  laboratory  as  at  the  Sorbonne.  At  the  same 
time  it  has  the  benefits  of  concentration.  One  of  its 
buildings,  very  suggestive  in  its  present  condition,  has 
the  form  of  a  mighty  semicircle,  which  ends  abruptly  at 
the  second  story,  with  a  flat  roof.  This  will  become  the 
foundation  of  a  great  amphitheatre,  when  the  generosity 
of  a  donor  permits  the  complete  execution  of  the  plan. 
And  this  visibly  unfinished  building  seems  to  call  for 
the  donation.  Upon  entering  it,  you  find  in  the  base- 
ment a  large  pool  where,  at  all  seasons,  the  boys  come 
to  swim,  and  above  which  is  a  vast  gymnasium.  The 
main  floor  is  a  power-house,  a  central  plant,  which  dis- 
tributes heat,  cold,  compressed  air  and  electricity  to 
all  parts  of  the  university.  All  that,  managed  by  expert 
engineers,  assures  to  all  departments  the  most  modern 
services,  while  avoiding  expensive  duplications.1 

At  Chicago,  that  immense  city,  the  university, 
founded  in  1890,  is  also  quite  agglomerated,  and  does 
not  yet  lack  room.  It  extends  along  a  broad  avenue, 
the  Midway  Plaisance,  which  connects  two  large  parks. 
In  1914  it  covered  90  acres  and  consisted  of  about  50 
buildings,  in  an  English  Gothic  style,  very  sumptuous 
as  well  as  homogeneous,  which  recalls  both  Oxford  and 
Cambridge.  It  has  secured  the  ownership  of  the  land  in  its 

1  At  the  Sorbonne,  built  at  the  same  time  as  Columbia,  the  Faculty  of 
Sciences  alone  has  seventeen  heating  plants,  but  has  no  energy  producing 
station. 


UNIVERSITIES  33 

neighborhood,  bordering  the  avenue,  and  it  can  extend 
at  its  pleasure  in  the  future.  The  University  of  Chicago 
is  the  one  which  in  exterior  has  perhaps  the  best  ap- 
pearance and  the  amplest  room,  as  an  urban  university. 

The  universities  which  have  still  remained  outside 
the  great  cities,  in  the  open  country  or  in  small  towns, 
are  more  charming. 

Such  is  Princeton,  in  New  Jersey,  scarcely  two  hours 
from  New  York.  The  town  has  only  a  few  thousand 
inhabitants;  it  blends  with  the  country  in  all  directions, 
and  seems  to  be  but  the  necessary  complement  of  the 
university.  Along  broad  streets,  lined  with  large  trees, 
Or  widely  and  irregularly  spaced  on  vast  lawns,  the 
sixty-five  university  buildings,  laboratories,  halls,  and 
dormitories,  seem  scattered  over  a  great  park.  Some 
date  from  the  eighteenth  century,  and  were  witnesses  or 
the  seat  of  important  events  in  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence. There  was  a  battle  at  Princeton,  and  in  one  of  the 
university  halls,  George  Washington  received  the  first 
ambassador  accredited  to  the  United  States. 

Princeton  leaves  with  the  foreigner  passing  through, 
above  all  an  impression  of  luxury.  Its  Graduates'  Col- 
lege, in  the  style  of  the  great  English  colleges  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  is  particularly  sumptuous.  The  stu- 
dents have  numerous  and  elegant  clubs.  Out  of  the 
little  stream  an  elongated  lake  has  been  made,  Carnegie 
Lake,  in  order  to  allow  canoeing  and  regattas.  This 
seems  to  the  traveler  a  Thelema's  abbey  for  youth,  and 
this  impression  cannot  be  entirely  false,  for  Mr.  Wood- 
row  Wilson,  who  was  its  president  before  he  entered  the 
White  House,  made  the  following  remarks,  in  a  report 
which  roused  storms  of  protest.  "We  realized,"  he  says, 


34     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

"that,  for  all  its  subtle  charm  and  beguiling  air  of 
academic,  Princeton,  so  far  as  her  undergraduates  were 
concerned,  had  come  to  be  merely  a  delightful  place  of 
residence,  where  young  men,  for  the  most  part  happily 
occupied  by  other  things,  were  made  to  perform  certain 
academic  tasks;  that,  although  we  demanded  at  times 
a  certain  part  of  the  attention  of  our  pupils  for  intel- 
lectual things,  their  life  and  consciousness  were  for  the 
rest  wholly  unacademic  and  detached  from  the  interests 
which  in  theory  were  the  all-important  interests  of  the 
place.  For  a  great  maj  ority  of  them,  residence  here  meant 
a  happy  life  of  comradeship  and  sport  interrupted  by  the 
grind  of  perfunctory  'lessons'  and  examinations,  to  which 
they  attended  rather  because  of  the  fear  of  being  cut  off 
from  this  life  than  because  they  were  seriously  engaged  in 
getting  training  which  would  fit  their  faculties  and  their 
spirits  for  the  tasks  of  the  world  which  they  knew  they 
must  face  after  their  happy  freedom  was  over."1 

I  hasten  to  say  that  Princeton  otherwise  gives  un- 
deniable proof  of  being  an  important  scientific  centre, 
where  investigators  must  enjoy  a  particularly  calm  and 
agreeable  life.  Works  of  the  first  order  have  come  from 
its  biological  laboratories,  and  in  particular,  Professor 
W.  B.  Scott,  who  is  one  of  the  masters  of  the  palaeon- 
tology of  Mammals,  has  built  up  there,  with  materials 
discovered,  worked  up,  and  studied  by  him  and  his 
pupils,  one  of  the  finest  and  most  valuable  museums  for 
this  special  branch,  whose  bearing  on  the  study  of  the 
problem  of  evolution  is  considerable. 

Properly  speaking,  the  University  of  California  is  no 
longer  situated  in  the  country.  The  city  of  Berkeley  is 

1  Princeton  Alumni  Weekly,  1907.  Quoted  from  Slosson,  op.  dt,>  pp.  79-80. 


UNIVERSITIES  35 

developing  rapidly  around  it,  but  is  spread  out  broadly 
in  the  midst  of  gardens.  The  university  campus  occu- 
pies a  delightful  site,  on  the  slope  of  the  hills,  bathed  by 
San  Francisco  Bay,  exactly  facing  the  Golden  Gate, 
where,  every  evening,  the  setting  sun  plunges  into  the 
Pacific,  framed  by  the  silhouette  of  the  mountains  and 
of  the  great  port.  This  campus  is  a  vast  park,  in  which 
the  eucalyptus  grow  beside  palms  and  numerous  cen- 
tury-old live  oaks  with  robust  gnarled  branches.  The 
university  of  Berkeley,  founded  in  1868  by  the  union  of 
a  private  college  and  a  creation  of  the  state  of  California, 
in  execution  of  the  Morrill  Act,  has  had  the  happy  for- 
tune to  have  at  its  disposal  an  immense  space.  Its  first 
laboratories  were  built  of  wood  and  are  still  standing, 
but  as  temporary  buildings.  A  competition  among 
architects  was  held,  a  few  years  ago,  in  which  our  com- 
patriot, M.  Benard,  was  the  winner,  to  plan  the  whole 
of  the  permanent  buildings,  and  little  by  little  the  latter 
is  going  up,  all  covered  with  white  marble.  Already  the 
administration  building,  California  Hall,  the  college  of 
agriculture,  that  of  mines,  and  the  library,  have  been 
finished,  and  others  were  in  construction  in  1916.  In 
the  centre,  a  replica  of  the  Campanile  of  Venice  has  been 
erected,  and  on  one  of  the  slopes  of  the  park,  a  Greek 
theatre,  exactly  reproduced,  in  which,  thanks  to  the 
California  climate,  performances  can  be  given  in  the 
open  air  before  thousands  of  spectators.  So  the  univer- 
sity city  rises,  little  by  little,  without  destroying  nature. 
Yet  the  vast  campus  at  Berkeley  only  encloses  a  part 
of  the  university,  the  classical  college,  that  of  engineer- 
ing and  that  of  agriculture,  as  well  as  the  scientific  lab- 
oratories. In  San  Francisco,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
bay,  which  the  ferries  cross  in  twenty  minutes,  are  the 


36     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

schools  of  law  and  medicine.  This  university  has  not 
had  the  too  strict  constraint  of  the  old  traditions  of  the 
college,  and  like  the  other  state  universities,  it  has  de- 
veloped broadly  toward  agriculture  and  the  applied 
sciences.  At  the  same  time,  gifts  have  furnished  it  great 
annexes  for  pure  science,  like  the  Lick  Observatory  on 
Mount  Hamilton,  and  the  biological  station  which  Pro- 
fessor Hitter  directs,  at  La  Jolla,  near  San  Diego,  on  the 
Mexican  frontier. 

I  did  not  have  a  chance  to  visit  Cornell  University,  at 
Ithaca,  in  New  York  state,1  and  I  regret  it,  for,  in  a 
quite  different  landscape,  it  evokes  the  same  happy  ideas 
as  Berkeley. 

From  M.  Paul  Marchal's  book,  which  I  have  already 
had  occasion  to  cite,  I  quote  the  following  description, 
which  gives  at  once  a  very  lively  and  a  very  attractive 
impression  of  it. 

"It  spreads  over  a  large  wooded  plateau,"  says  M. 
Marchal,  "bounded  by  cliffs  which  overlook  the  town 
and  beautiful  Lake  Cayuga.  Isolated  by  rocky  gorges, 
through  which  narrowly  confined  torrents  fall  in  cas- 
cades, it  is  accessible  only  by  suspension  bridges  thrown 
from  one  wall  to  the  other,  and  crossing  above  the 
gigantic  tops  of  the  century-old  tsugas. 

"This  land,  which  measures  not  less  than  1200  acres, 
is  an  immense  stretch  of  verdure,  woodland,  and  prairie, 
whose  continuity  is  broken  only  by  avenues  and  paths 
permitting  approach  to  the  various  university  build- 
ings. A  complete  city  rises  there,  whose  buildings, 
isolated  from  one  another,  emerge  from  the  midst  of 
luxuriant  foliage.  First  there  are  the  many  buildings 

1  The  school  of  medicine  of  this  university  is  at  New  York  City. 


UNIVERSITIES  37 

in  which  are  sumptuously  installed  the  departments  of 
the  eight  colleges  and  of  the  school  of  advanced  studies, 
which  compose  the  university.  Of  very  diverse  archi- 
tectural types,  often  half-veiled  beneath  a  mantle  of 
climbing  plants,  they  display  the  perspective  of  their 
gables  and  porticos  along  shady  avenues,  or  are  arranged 
in  gigantic  quadrilaterals,  around  carpets  of  verdure 
with  trees  in  quincunxes.  Farther  on,  in  the  charming 
setting  of  an  English  park,  are  grouped  on  a  slope,  and 
under  the  shade  of  large  trees,  the  luxurious  houses  be- 
longing to  the  different  clubs  or  university  associations 
(fraternities).  Finally,  the  extreme  northeast  of  the 
campus  is  occupied  by  dwellings  for  the  president  and 
professors  of  the  university.  They  are  grouped  in  a 
charming  hamlet,  composed  of  cottages  scattered  among 
trees  and  flower  beds.  Dominating  the  whole,  rises  the 
tall  silhouette  of  the  campanile,  which  thrice  a  day,  in 
a  sweet  and  joyous  melody,  sends  forth  the  call  of  its 
chimes." 

Such  is  the  real  setting  in  which  Americans  of  today 
place  their  new  universities.  This  civilization,  which  is 
above  all  urban,  and  whose  cities  are  immense,  never- 
theless has  not  lost  the  feeling  for  nature.  Are  not 
.students  and  professors  incited  to  broad  and  living  con- 
ceptions by  always  contemplating  a  wide  horizon? 

What  a  contrast  with  our  stunted  Faculties,  rebuilt 
even  recently  in  the  centres  of  cities,  and  which  no  one 
dared  to  put  outside  them,  in  spite  of  the  idea  having 
been  formulated.  The  Sorbonne,  Darboux  said  very 
justly,  is  arranged  like  a  trans- Atlantic  mail  liner.  That 
is  to  say,  for  active  life  and  needs  which  exact  the  broad- 
est foresight  and  the  greatest  freedom  of  transforma- 


38     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

tion,  we  have  placed  ourselves  in  the  severest  conditions 
of  confinement.  Thus  the  Sorbonne  was  not  finished 
when  already  new  departments  which  required  a  place 
in  it  could  not  be  accommodated. 

It  is  true  that  the  American  universities  are,  in  them- 
selves alone,  cities  whose  numerous  students  suffice  to 
populate  and  enliven  them,  and  with  university  cus- 
toms which  are  not  ours.  They  can  be  sufficient  to 
themselves,  without  being  tributary  to  the  great  city. 
But  whoever  has  contemplated  the  lawns  of  their 
grounds  and  the  verdure  of  their  trees,  where  the  labora- 
tories are  hidden  away;  whoever  has  seen  a  numerous 
youth,  full  of  the  joy  of  living,  passing  through  them, 
cannot  but  find  all  our  university  buildings  terribly 
sinister,  be  they  of  the  purest  Louis  XIII  style,  and 
cannot  but  pity  those  who  have  to  study  in  them.  One 
would  be  tempted  to  complete  the  republican  motto  on 
the  pediments  of  our  buildings  with  the  line  from  Dante : 

"Lasciate  ogni  speranza,  voi  ch'entrate." 


CHAPTER  IV 

UNIVERSITY  ADMINISTRATION 
THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 

Harvard,  the  Corporation  and  the  Board  of  Overseers.  Part  played  by  the 
Alumni.  Other  universities.  Trustees  and  Regents.  The  President.  His 
powers  and  position. 

WE  must  now  see  these  great  universities  in  action. 
We  shall  examine  first  the  central  organ  which 
regulates  and  coordinates  their  activity,  their  admin- 
istration. What  precedes  has  given  an  idea  of  the  mul- 
tiplicity and  complexity  of  their  machinery.  They  have 
a  large  population  of  students,  often  running  into  the 
thousands,  a  working  force  of  professors  and  instruc- 
tors which  reaches  up  to  700  or  800  persons,  and  they 
are  at  the  same  time,  great  estates  with  many  buildings; 
they  have  funds  of  twenty  and  thirty  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  an  annual  budget  which  often  amounts  to 
more  than  two  million  dollars  of  expenditures. 

Here  again,  under  the  diversity  of  details  due  to  the 
complete  autonomy  of  each  of  them,  in  the  present  and 
in  the  past,  we  find  at  bottom  a  very  great  uniformity, 
which  reflects  the  college  tradition  and  the  American 
mind  in  general.  The  present-day  university  is  gov- 
erned, in  a  word,  as  was  the  college,  in  spite  of  the  trans- 
formation which  has  taken  place.  The  tradition,  and 
especially  the  spirit  of  the  college,  survive  with  perhaps 
excessive  vigor.  The  result  is,  sometimes,  as  we  shall 
see,  very  intense  friction. 

As  the  first  example,  let  us  again  take  Harvard,  in 
which  the  friction  in  question  has  been  reduced  to  the 

39 


40     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

minimum,  and  is  scarcely  felt.  In  its  broad  lines  Har- 
vard has  kept  its  seventeenth-century  constitution,  save 
that  the  representatives  of  the  state  have  little  by  little 
been  completely  eliminated  from  its  councils.  The  exec- 
utive power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Corporation,  which 
consists  of  the  president,  the  treasurer  and  five  members, 
the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College,  and  is 
self-perpetuating.  The  Corporation  manages  entirely 
the  finances  and  property,  chooses  the  president,  ap- 
points and  recalls  the  professors,  and  grants  the  diplo- 
mas. Its  power  is  without  appeal,  but  nevertheless  it 
is  controlled  by  a  sort  of  advisory  council,  provided 
with  the  right  of  veto,  the  Board  of  Overseers.  In  its 
present  form,  the  latter  has  thirty  members,  chosen  for 
six  years,  and  renewed  each  year  in  groups  of  five,  by 
election.  This  election  takes  place  at  the  festivities  at 
the  end  of  the  academic  year,  at  Commencement,  when 
the  diplomas  are  presented. 

All  former  graduates,  the  alumni,  present  at  these 
festivities,  have  the  right  to  vote.  This  board  is  there- 
fore a  direct  emanation  from  the  body  of  the  alumni, 
who  thereby  exercise  a  general  control  over  the  progress 
of  the  university. 

This  participation  of  former  students  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  university,  totally  unknown  to  us  in  France, 
is  a  heritage  from  the  English  tradition.  It  is  a  power- 
ful bond  between  the  institution  and  all  those  whose 
Alma  Mater  it  has  been;  it  makes  of  the  university  a 
really  living  and  loved  person,  and  not  an  abstract 
emanation  from  the  state.  It  is  a  fundamental  trait  of 
the  constitution  of  every  American  university,  and  it 
finds  its  place  even  in  the  state  universities.  "It  is 
natural  and  proper,"  says  Mr.  Charles  W.  Eliot,1  "to 

1  Science,  December  15,  1905. 


UNIVERSITIES  41 

give  some  influence  over  the  fortunes  of  a  college  or  uni- 
versity to  the  body  of  its  graduates,  as  soon  as  this  body 
becomes  large  and  strong." 

At  Harvard,  however,  the  alumni  exercise  their  in- 
fluence only  by  way  of  control.  They  have  no  power 
over  the  composition  of  the  Corporation,  and  the  latter, 
at  least  at  present,  includes  no  member  of  the  Faculty, 
scholar  or  professor,  outside  of  the  president;  its  mem- 
bers are  Harvard  men  who  have  arrived  at  a  high  social 
position,  business  men,  bankers,  prominent  citizens, 
like  Mr.  Robert  Bacon,  who  was  ambassador  to  France. 
The  president  alone  therefore,  represents  the  truly 
technical  side;  his  fellows  can  help  him  especially  by 
their  business  experience,  in  the  financial  management 
of  the  university. 

The  overseers,  in  fact,  are  also  chiefly  social  notabili- 
ties; the  share  of  the  intellectuals  is  small,  and  many 
regret  it.  That  expresses  the  fact  that  the  dominant 
preoccupations  of  the  body  of  the  alumni  are  not  of  an 
intellectual  order.  They  love  profoundly  their  univer- 
sity, they  interest  themselves  in  its  prosperity,  and  sus- 
tain it  materially  with  a  mighty  generosity,  but  in  the 
memories  of  youth  which  attach  them  to  it,  the  intel- 
lectual side  plays  but  a  minor  part. 

The  system  with  two  bodies,  which  Harvard  offers, 
is  an  exception.  In  general  there  is  but  one  council, 
ordinarily  called  Board  of  Trustees  or  in  the  state  uni- 
versities, Board  of  Regents.  In  some  cases  this  board 
is  self -perpetuating;  more  often  it  is  elected,  at  least  in 
part,  by  the  alumni.  In  the  state  universities  it  in- 
cludes members  ex  officio  such  as  the  governor  of  the 
state,  and  members  elected  either  by  the  state  legisla- 
ture, or  directly  by  the  people.  In  these  universities, 


42     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

politics  weighs  more  or  less  heavily  upon  their  govern- 
ment. But  it  must  be  observed  that  this  is  not  directly 
in  the  hands  of  the  general  government,  There  is 
always  a  council  interposed,  and  as  a  consequence, 
large  autonomy.  Sometimes  the  board  of  trustees  is 
very  numerous,  and  in  that  case  it  delegates  most  of 
its  powers  to  a  commission  of  which  the  president  is  a 
member. 

I  cannot  think  of  describing  here  in  detail  of  varieties 
which  different  universities  offer.  There  is,  neverthe- 
less, an  interesting  example,  Cornell  University,  which 
is  of  a  hybrid  nature,  a  private  university  by  its  foun- 
dation, and  a  state  institution  in  that  it  has  received 
lands  allotted  to  New  York  state  under  the  Morrill 
Act,  and  because,  moreover,  it  still  receives  other  special 
subventions  from  that  state.  Its  Board  of  Trustees  is 
very  composite.  It  includes  fifteen  self-perpetuating 
trustees,  ten  elected  by  the  alumni  (among  these,  a 
woman  was  elected  in  1912),  five  designated  by  the  gov- 
ernor of  New  York  state,  and  ten  members  ex  officio.1 

The  character  common  to  all  these  variants  is  that 
the  professors  have  no  share  in  the  constitution  of  the 
governing  board,  and  that  of  all  interests  concerned, 
those  of  an  intellectual  and  technical  order  are  the  only 
ones  not  directly  represented  in  an  assured  manner. 
That  is  incontestably  a  defect,  against  which  numerous 
voices  are  justly  raised. 

The  council  of  trustees  or  regents  governs,  in  a  gen- 
eral way,  the  whole  university,  as  formerly  it  governed 

1  The  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor  of  New  York,  the  president  of 
the  legislature,  the  State  Commissioner  of  Public  Instruction,  and  State 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  the  President  of  the  State  Agricultural  Society, 
the  trustee  of  the  Ithaca  Public  Library,  the  President  of  the  University, 
and  the  eldest  of  the  male  descendants  of  Ezra  Cornell. 


UNIVERSITIES  43 

the  college.  However,  with  the  growing  diversification 
and  the  enormous  extension  of  the  university  with  the 
special  conditions  under  which  each  of  its  parts  func- 
tions, certain  of  them  must  have  more  or  less  autonomy, 
and  their  own  council,  provided  with  greater  or  less 
powers.  Here  are  some  examples.  A  few  years  ago, 
Columbia  University  incorporated  an  institution  till 
then  distinct,  Teachers'  College,  at  once  a  normal  school 
amd  a  school  of  applied  arts,  which  is  very  large  and  by 
itself  numbers  about  2000  students.  This  college  has 
kept  its  own  board  of  trustees  and  governs  itself.  The 
Scripps  Institution  for  Biological  Research,  a  biological 
station  established  at  La  Jolla,  near  San  Diego,  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  California,  is  connected  with  the 
university  at  Berkeley.  Founded  with  gifts  specially 
restricted  to  it,  it  has  its  own  council,  which  is  in  fact 
autonomous,  whose  decisions  must  merely  be,  in  princi- 
ple, confirmed  by  the  regents  of  the  university.  You 
can  imagine  the  multiplicity  of  degrees  with  which  such 
autonomy  may  be  invested,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances and  the  flexibility  which  that  possibility  as- 
sures. 

The  board  of  trustees  was  an  organization  on  the 
scale  of  the  older  colleges,  in  which  the  unity  was  ab- 
solute, and  which  had  only  a  limited  number  of  pro- 
fessors and  students.  It  needs  to  be  adapted  to  the 
scale  of  the  new  institutions  and  to  their  needs.1  The 
technical  incompetence  and  the  excess  of  power  of  the 
trustees  or  regents  are  evidently  a  serious  fault  of  the 

1  See  on  this  subject,  the  projects  of  reform,  in  a  very  democratic  spirit, 
suggested  by  Professor  J.  McK.  Cattell,  "University  Control,"  Science, 
May  24-31. 1912,  and  the  inquiry  organized  by  him,  the  results  of  which  the 
same  journal  has  published. 


44     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

present  regime,  and  this  fault  has  increased  through 
over-growth,  which  is  a  peril  to  universities  as  well  as 
to  organisms.  The  problem  is  evidently  to  give  a  suf- 
ficient autonomy  to  the  parts  which  are  individualized, 
while  maintaining  a  coordination  in  the  whole. 

In  reality,  there  are  correctives  for  the  system,  and  I 
have  seen  one  functioning  at  Harvard,  which  appeared 
very  interesting  to  me,  that  is,  what  is  called  the  visit- 
ing committees.  The  Board  of  Overseers,  to  accom- 
plish its  mission  of  control,  names  special  commissions 
for  each  of  the  schools  or  institutions,  or  even  for  each 
of  the  departments  which  compose  the  university  or  the 
college.  The  members  of  these  commissions  are  former 
students,  chosen  either  for  their  competence  or  for  their 
moral  weight.  I  saw  one  of  them  accomplishing  its 
mission  with  the  absence  of  formalism  and  the  gentle- 
manly spirit  which  impregnates  the  whole  mind  of  this 
society.  The  members  of  the  committee  can  gather 
from  everyone  suggestions  and  complaints  of  every 
nature,  weigh  them  in  their  conscience  as  men  not  de- 
formed by  official  life,  and  carry  the  echo  of  them  to  the 
overseers,  themselves  charged  with  the  general  control 
of  the  university.  That  is  evidently  a  very  flexible 
system,  and  one  which  grows  out  of  the  habit  of  self- 
government  of  the  old  protest  ant  English  communities. 

The  president  of  the  university  is  the  head  and  the 
working  hand  of  the  board  of  trustees.  He  carries  out 
their  decisions  and  proposes  to  them  the  measures  he 
considers  necessary.  At  least  that  is  the  usual  case. 
There  are  a  few  universities  in  which  the  president  is 
not  a  member  of  the  board,  but  is  merely  answerable 
to  it. 


UNIVERSITIES  45 

In  reality  power  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the 
president,  who  alone  follows  closely  the  life  of  the  uni- 
versity, and  is,  in  most  circumstances  —  at  least  those 
which  concern  internal  management  —  the  only  com- 
petent authority.  His  almost  unavoidable  policy  is  to 
induce  the  trustees  or  regents  to  leave  to  him  the  maxi- 
mum of  initiative  and  freedom. 

The  president  of  an  American  university  has  thus 
considerable  power,  and  is  only  exceptionally  sub- 
jected to  effective  control.  In  any  case,  the  professorial 
body  cannot  take  any  action  contrary  to  him.  The 
president  has  at  the  same  time  a  considerable  and  pre- 
cise responsibility  of  direction.  Is  not  the  President  of 
the  United  States  himself  invested  with  enormous 
powers?  In  every  business,  the  man  who  is  at  the  head, 
and  who  also  is  generally  called  the  president,  has 
almost  absolute  powers  of  management.  There  is  room 
in  America  for  energetic  men  who  love  action.  They 
are  not  trammeled  there.  The  seed  can  grow.  The 
environment  is  propitious,  for  it  does  not  lead,  as  with 
us,  to  the  irresponsibility  which  destroys  character. 

On  the  president  of  the  university  rests  the  care  of 
assuring  the  progress  and  material  success  of  the  in- 
stitution, and  as  its  material  needs  are  always  large, 
one  of  his  principal  functions  is  to  find  the  goodwill  to 
furnish  the  necessary  resources.  He  must  conciliate 
the  legislature  in  state  universities,  or  in  private  uni- 
versities adroitly  rouse  the  generosity  of  the  alumni 
a  task  which  is  not  always  easy  in  spite  of  the  loyalty 
of  the  alumni.  Every  alumnus,  says  a  president,  wants 
to  see  the  college  grow,  up  to  the  day  when  you  turn 
to  him. 

As  to  the  personnel,  the  president  has  almost  dis- 


46     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

cretionary  powers.  In  most  universities,  the  choice  of 
professors,  their  nomination,  promotion,  and  recall,  are 
without  appeal  in  the  hands  of  the  trustees,  and  in  fact 
of  the  president.  It  is  not  astonishing  that  this  regime 
sometimes  gives  occasion  for  very  just  discontent.  Mr. 
J.  McK.  Cattell,  whose  democratic  spirit  is  very  much 
opposed  to  this  function,  says  of  it  that  it  makes  the 
president  rather  a  boss  than  a  leader.  "In  the  academic 
jungle,"  he  humorously  says,  "the  president  is  my  black 
beast."  1 

The  president  is  the  tyrant,  good  or  bad.  A  good 
tyranny  is  a  rule  which  has  many  advantages  and  the 
fact  cannot  be  contested  that  certain  American  uni- 
versities have  owed  a  large  growth  and  prosperity  to 
having  had  at  their  head  for  a  long  time  an  active,  en- 
terprising president  with  broad  and  well-advised  views. 
Mr.  Charles  W.  Eliot,  raised  to  the  presidency  of  Har- 
vard in  1869,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  years,  conducted 
the  institution  during  forty  years  with  a  firm  and  sure 
hand,  and  under  his  leadership  Harvard  has  been  one 
of  the  chief  guides  in  the  evolution  of  American  higher 
education.  The  first  president  of  Johns  Hopkins,  Oil- 
man, has  played  a  role  of  the  same  order.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  was  opened  in  1890,  under  the 
presidency  of  W.  R.  Harper,  then  thirty-six  years  old, 
and  during  the  fourteen  years  he  remained  at  its  head 
it  rose  to  the  first  rank. 

At  the  present  time  the  personality  of  the  president 
is  moreover  particularly  important.  The  American 
university,  according  to  what  we  have  already  seen,  is 
in  a  transitional  phase  between  the  college  tradition 
and  the  spirit  of  real  higher  education  and  scientific 

1  Science,  May  31,  1912,  p.  845. 


UNIVERSITIES  47 

research.  The  equilibrium  between  these  two  tenden- 
cies, or  its  rupture  for  the  profit  of  one  or  the  other,  is 
largely  in  the  hands  of  the  president. 

The  real  paradox  of  the  situation  is  that  while  having 
these  extended  powers  and  while  thus  administering 
the  entire  university  from  above,  the  president  exer- 
cises authority  directly  in  details,  with  scarcely  any 
intermediate  organs.    Thus  success  in  these  functions 
is  difficult  in  proportion  to  the  power  which  they  confer. 
The  president  of  a  new  college  in  Oregon,  Mr.  W.  T. 
Foster,1  had  the  idea  of  visiting,  at  the  beginning  of  his 
presidency,  105  colleges  or  universities,  scattered  over 
29  states,  and  to  inform  himself  upon  the  moral  posi- 
tion of  the  president.  In  51  cases  he  was  able  to  form  a 
clear  opinion.    There  were  34,  or  two-thirds,  in  which 
the  president  distinctly  gave  dissatisfaction.    It  is  evi- 
dently difficult  for  him  to  content  everybody.   He  must 
be  a  scholar,  says  Mr.  Foster,  often  a  professor  too  (in 
many  second-class  institutions  he  continues  to  teach 
while  president).    He  has  the  duty  of  watching  the 
teaching  of  others.   He  must  be  a  business  man,  and  it 
is  certainly  less  complex  and  more  remunerative  to 
direct  a  commercial  business.    He  must  find  funds  for 
the  university,  represent  it,  have  happy  relations  with 
the  alumni,  students,  and  visiting  strangers.    He  must 
be  ready  to  speak  at  numerous  meetings  at  any  moment 
and  on  any  subject;    be  able  to  guide  the  trustees 
through  questions  they  are  not  acquainted  with,  to  get 
along  with  the  cliques  in  the  faculty,  to  keep  the  pro- 
fessors patient,  who  are  expecting  promotion.   The  task 
is  impossible,  Mr. Foster  concludes.  It  must  be  divided, 
while  continuing  to  centralize  responsibility. 

1  Science,  May  2,  1913,  p.  653. 


48    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  professorial  staff  suffers,  in  a  general  way,  from 
the  autocracy  of  the  president,1  except  in  those  univer- 
sities in  which  he  knows  how  to  use  it  with  discretion, 
and  in  which,  without  being  obliged  by  the  regula- 
tions, he  carefully  consults,  for  example,  the  compe- 
tent professors  in  regard  to  nominations  to  be  made. 
But  even  with  the  best  intentions,  a  man  cannot  under- 
stand equally  well  all  needs  and  all  tendencies.  He  will 
favor  necessarily  those  which  accord  with  his  personal 
preferences. 

Abuses  of  power  and  conflicts  result  from  this  situa- 
tion, which  are  none  the  less  unfortunate  for  being  only 
the  rather  rare  exceptions.  Professors  have  been  bru- 
tally dismissed  from  certain  universities  without  even 
being  permitted  to  defend  themselves,  simply  for  hav- 
ing expressed  opinions  displeasing  to  the  president  or 
trustees.  There  are  evidently  legitimate  dismissals — 
although  arousing  the  discontent  of  the  interested 
parties  —  but  the  right  of  defense  ought  to  be  broadly 
assured,  and  the  proof  that,  in  more  than  one  case, 
wrongs  have  been  done,  is  that  certain  professors  thus 
dismissed  have  been  welcomed  afterward  by  universities 
of  the  first  order,  such  as  Harvard.  It  has  happened 
that  facts  of  this  kind  have  provoked  resignations  en 
masse  and  the  exodus  of  most  of  the  professors.  In  1913, 

1  Here  is  a  declaration  coming  certainly  from  a  sincere  conviction,  but 
which  seems  to  me  very  typical.  The  President  of  Vermont  University,  at 
his  inauguration,  declared  to  his  faculty,  "I  should  say  to  you,  in  perfect 
candor,  at  this  time,  in  order  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding  from 
the  beginning,  that  I  will  not  serve  on  a  teaching  body  with  any  man  who 
uses  intoxicating  liquors  in  any  form  whatsoever."  (Science,  October  13, 
1911,  p.  491.)  He  declared  before  elsewhere,  that  the  use  of  beer  and  wine 
is  degrading.  One  may  judge  from  the  categorical  force  of  this  declaration, 
to  what  lengths  the  president's  power  may  extend  and  be  exercised  in 
practice. 


UNIVERSITIES  49 

at  the  University  of  the  State  of  Utah,  there  were 
eighteen  such  resignations.  These  conflicts  have  ended 
by  bringing  about  the  formation  of  an  association  of 
college  and  university  professors,  which  in  the  case  of 
the  University  of  Utah,  sent  a  committee  to  the  spot 
to  make  a  regular  investigation. 

The  omnipotence  of  the  trustees  and  of  the  president, 
not  counterbalanced  by  a  control  by  the  professors,  is  a 
subject  of  widespread  uneasiness  at  the  present  time. 
In  this  regard,  the  American  college  has  evolved  from 
its  English  origins  in  a  quite  opposite  direction  to  that 
of  the  English  college  itself.  The  latter  is  a  monachal 
democracy,  and  the  master  is,  among  the  fellows,  only 
primus  inter  pares.  A  movement  is  undeniably  appear- 
ing in  the  United  States  in  favor  of  a  more  democratic 
reconstruction  of  the  university.1  This  transforma- 
tion, on  the  other  hand,  would  have  the  inconveniences 
inherent  in  every  democratic  government,  and  we  ought 
in  truth  to  admit  that  the  bodies  actually  administering 
the  universities  are  in  a  very  general  way  animated  with 
perfect  disinterestedness  and  inspired  by  an  ardent  will 
to  assure  their  prosperity  and  success.  To  the  trustees, 
especially  in  the  old  institutions,  the  university  is  a 
living  and  loved  person,  and  not  a  cold  administrative 
machine.  The  presidents  too,  have  the  highest  idea  of 
their  task,  and  unreservedly  consecrate  to  the  develop- 
ment of  their  university  the  personal  strength  of  char- 
acter and  energy  for  which  they  were  chosen. 

1  See  J.  McK,  Cattell,  "University  Control,"  loc.  tit, 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PROFESSORS 

General  conditions  of  the  career.  Moral  and  material  desiderata.  Excessive 
burden  of  teaching.  Insufficient  participation  in  the  management.  Precari- 
ous guaranties.  Advances  in  the  career.  Salary.  Retirement  pensions. 
The  Carnegie  Foundation. 

F  all  the  elements  of  which  a  university  is  con- 
stituted,  the  professorial  staff  is  evidently  the  most 
essential.  At  times,  in  some  countries,  it  has  a  tendency 
to  believe  that  it  itself  is  the  only  one  of  which  it  is 
necessary  to  take  account,  but  this  is  evidently  exces- 
sive. Still  it  remains  none  the  less  true  that  on  the 
worth  of  the  individuals  who  compose  it,  depends  all 
the  intellectual  strength  of  the  institution.  Therefore 
the  conditions  of  the  recruiting  and  of  the  career  of  the 
professors  have  a  great  importance  for  the  evolution 
of  the  university  and  for  its  scientific  productivity.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  professors  represent  a  collectivity 
whose  interests  are  distinct  at  once  from  those  of  the 
administration,  which  we  have  just  studied,  and  from 
those  of  the  students  and  alumni,  which  we  shall  con- 
sider hereafter. 

If  we  except  a  few  privileged  universities,  the  ma- 
terial and  moral  position  of  the  professors  in  the  United 
States  is  modest.  "The  young  American,"  says  Mr. 
Charles  W.  Eliot,  "who  chooses  the  university  career, 
must  abandon  all  prospect  of  wealth  and  of  luxury 
which  a  fortune  alone  can  procure.  What  he  can 
reasonably  hope  for  is  an  assured  income,  a  stable 

50 


UNIVERSITIES  51 

position,  long  vacations,  the  satisfaction  of  intellectual 
tastes,  good  comradeships  in  study,  teaching  or  re- 
search, large  resources  in  books,  and  an  honorable  but 
simple  way  of  living."  Still,  that  is  a  picture  drawn  by 
an  administrator,  inclined  to  optimism  in  the  matter, 
on  principle. 

American  professors  make  known  today  desires  of 
two  sorts,  some  moral,  others  material.  We  shall  ex- 
amine them  in  succession. 

The  first  of  these  desiderata  relates  to  the  excessive 
burden  of  teaching.  The  essential  function  of  higher 
education  is  research.  It  is  not  a  question  of  sacrificing 
teaching  to  it,  but  the  professors  of  a  university  must 
be  left  freedom  of  mind  and  time  enough  to  under- 
take and  conduct  research  successfully.  However,  in 
America,  they  have  almost  daily  lectures.  The  majority 
of  these  doubtless  do  not  call  for  much  preparation. 
But  meanwhile  the  professors  have  too  many  commit- 
tee meetings  and  cares  of  an  administrative  order,  and 
they  must  occupy  themselves  too  much  with  the 
students  individually.  That  is  not  the  right  pace  to  set 
for  advanced  teaching.1  This  is  due  to  the  college 
spirit,  and  to  the  unpreparedness  of  the  students  who 
come  to  it.  But  though  the  fact  be  explained,  it  re- 
mains, none  the  less. 

The  second  desire  of  the  teaching  staff  is  included  in 
the  preceding  chapter:  it  is  the  counterpart  of  the 
president's  situation.  In  most  universities  the  profes- 
sors demand  a  regular  share  in  the  government  of  the 

1  Our  American  colleagues  have,  however,  from  the  point  of  view  of  vaca- 
tions, the  very  enviable  privilege,  every  seven  years,  of  being  able  to  take  a 
half  or  even  a  whole  year  of  leave,  which  they  call  a  sabbatical  year.  They 
receive  full  pay  for  six  months,  or  half-pay  if  they  are  absent  an  entire  year. 


52     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

institution,  and  in  the  mechanism  assuring  the  recruit- 
ing of  its  personnel,  as  well  as  greater  security  in  the 
positions  gained.  The  faculties  deliberate  frequently 
and  long,  but  often  on  petty  questions  of  detail.  All 
that  really  concerns  the  general  progress  of  the  uni- 
versity remains  outside  of  these  deliberations. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  professors  have  no  normal  rep- 
resentation in  the  directing  council.  The  influence  of 
business  men  is  valuable  in  order  to  administer  skil- 
fully the  funds  of  the  university,  and  that  of  the  alumni 
is  equally  favorable.  But  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
is  a  guarantee  for  the  general  intellectual  interests  nor 
for  the  special  interests  of  the  professors. 

Especially  if  it  is  a  question  of  choosing  a  specialist 
to  provide  certain  instruction,  it  is  a  principle  recognized 
everywhere,  although  often  insufficiently  applied,  that 
the  advice  of  competent  persons  is  one  of  the  primordial 
elements  of  the  choice  to  be  made.  Yet  the  college  pro- 
fessors, the  faculty,  have  no  official  and  legal  share  in 
these  appointments,  which  are  the  act  of  the  president 
and  trustees  alone.  In  reality,  broad-minded  and  well- 
advised  presidents  consult  competent  persons  in  their 
faculty,  but  only  out  of  courtesy  and  at  their  good 
pleasure.  There  is  very  just  complaint  at  that,  formu- 
lated many  times  in  late  years,  and  the  justice  of  which 
is  recognized,  besides,  by  many  university  presidents. 

Without  doubt  it  will  come  about  before  long,  follow- 
ing the  characteristic  and  fortunate  principle  of  the 
English  mind,  that  a  reform  must  be  proclaimed  by 
law  when  it  has  already  been  consecrated  in  practice. 

If  the  professors  have  no  regular  part  in  their  recruit- 
ing, they  also  lack  precise  guarantees  of  the  possession 
of  their  positions.  That  is  due  to  a  general  trait  of 


UNIVERSITIES  53 

American  customs,  which  has  advantages  for  society. 
There  are  no  fully  assured  positions  in  which  one  can 
go  to  sleep  in  security  and  inaction,  at  the  expense  of 
the  interests  over  which  one  is  to  keep  watch.  The 
plague  of  officialism  is  thus  avoided.  Everyone  must 
constantly  justify  his  function  by  real  activity. 

Most  chairs  are  given  in  a  temporary  manner.  The 
instructors  are  appointed  annually;  the  assistant  pro- 
fessors for  short  periods,  most  often  for  three  years. 
The  associate  and  full  professors  are  appointed  without 
limit  of  time,  but  without  guaranty;  during  good  be- 
havior, or  at  the  pleasure  of  the  trustees,  say  many  con- 
tracts. The  administration  thus  has  a  weapon  in  its 
hands,  which  it  can  use  at  almost  any  instant  against 
the  professors. 

It  uses  it  in  fact  only  in  very  rare  cases,  but  it  is  none 
the  less  a  redoubtable  menace,  and  one  against  which 
the  professors  are  at  present  without  recourse.  They 
desire  irremovability,  life-tenure  of  their  chairs,  at 
least  in  the  higher  grades,  when  they  have  been  tried; 
it  concerns  their  security  and  their  dignity. 

Above  all  they  ask  a  regular  procedure  by  which  they 
can  controvert  the  complaints  which  are  lodged  against 
them.  They  totally  lack  guarantees  which  higher  teach- 
ing possesses  in  other  countries.  Accordingly  from  time 
to  time,  discussions  arise,  like  that  which  occurred  in 
1913  at  Philadelphia,  following  the  dismissal  of  an 
assistant  professor  of  political  economy.  It  seemed  that 
this  dismissal  was  due  to  certain  opinions  expressed  by 
him  in  public  lectures  given'  outside  the  university. 
The  tone  of  the  discussion  which  followed,  in  the  news- 
papers, is  especially  characteristic,  the  fact  itself  being 
difficult  to  appreciate  here.  The  Public  Ledger,  one  of 


54     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  most  important  and  weightiest  newspapers  of  Phila- 
delphia, summed  up  the  affair  by  declaring,  "The  public 
has  every  right  to  know  whether  its  greatest  institu- 
tion of  learning  is  free  to  seek  the  truth  and  to  proclaim 
it  without  fear,  or  whether  it  is  constrained  to  keep 
silent  every  opinion  in  political  or  economic  matters, 
which  is  not  momentarily  to  the  taste  of  the  Trustees." 

This  affair  l  ended,  moreover,  in  causing  a  modifica- 
tion of  the  statutes  or  by-laws  of  the  university,  by  the 
trustees,  in  a  direction  which  recognizes  that  the  claims 
of  the  professors  were  right.  A  right  of  consultation 
concerning  appointments,  of  permanent  appointments 
as  full  professors,  and  appearance  before  a  board  of 
their  peers  before  every  dismissal,  have  in  fact  been 
granted  to  the  professors  in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  very  general  movement  of 
opinion  in  the  universities  on  these  questions  at  pres- 
ent, which  seems  on  the  point  of  leading  to  important 
reforms.  The  formation  of  an  association  of  professors, 
to  discuss  them  and  to  bring  them  about,  is  a  character- 
istic symptom.  The  uneasiness  scarcely  exists  in  the 
most  powerful  universities,  which  are  at  the  same  time 
the  most  liberal  in  regard  to  their  personnel,  as  is  the 
case  with  Harvard  and  a  few  others.2 

1  Cf.  Science,  1915,  no.  2. 

2  In  fact,  these  questions  so  to  speak  do  not  exist  at  Harvard.   Tradition 
has  established  in  that  old  university,  more  than  anywhere  else,  at  once 
among  administrative  officers  and  those  under  them,  a  sort  of  cooperative 
spirit  which,  till  now  at  least,  has  kept  them  out. 

Most  of  the  professors  do  not  even  wish  for  a  more  direct  participation 
in  administration  and  in  appointments,  fearing  that  it  would  introduce  in- 
trigues which  would  be  prejudicial  to  the  spirit  of  trustful  comradeship  and 
cordiality  which  reigns  in  the  teaching  staff.  They  rely  on  the  corporation 
the  more  willingly  because  in  their  eyes  it  incarnates  the  Harvard  spirit 


UNIVERSITIES  55 

An  interesting  general  study  of  these  questions  will 
be  found  in  the  articles  published  in  1912,  in  Science, 
by  Mr.  J.  McK.  Cattell,  under  the  title  "University 
Control."  He  prepared  a  complete  plan  of  reforms,  on 
the  subject  of  which  he  conducted  an  inquiry  among 
the  scientific  professors  of  the  various  universities. 
The  intention  of  the  reform  he  outlined  was  the  demo- 
cratization of  the  university  organization,  the  reduction 
of  the  president's  powers,  and  especially  the  subdivi- 
sion of  the  university,  which  has  become  a  giant,  into 
smaller  homogeneous  units,  as  largely  autonomous  as 
the  harmonious  functioning  of  the  whole  would  permit. 
I  cannot  enter  into  the  detail  of  these  propositions 
and  of  this  inquiry  here.  The  229  replies  which  Mr. 
Cattell  received  to  his  questionnaire  were  rather  diver- 
gent, as  is  natural  in  so  complex  a  problem.  He  analyzes 
the  reasons  for  which  on  the  whole  they  reflect  the 
general  opinion  very  exactly.  The  great  majority  were 
clearly  favorable  to  an  extended  reform,  and  184,  or 
approximately  two- thirds,  adopted  the  proposed  plan 
in  its  broad  lines.  The  universities  in  which  the  govern- 

and  devotion  to  the  institution.  The  professors,  they  note,  do  not  form  so 
homogeneous  a  body.  A  notable  part  are  of  origin  foreign  to  Harvard,  and 
they  wisely  maintain  that  it  should  be  so,  in  order  to  avoid  the  danger  of 
inbreeding,  while  assuring  constantly  the  renewal  of  ideas  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  outside  elements.  Harvard  reflects  well  the  old  English  spirit,  by 
which  things  draw  their  force  from  the  consecration  of  use  rather  than  from 
the  written  letter.  Thus  it  is  that  for  appointments  of  professors  there  is 
not  even  a  written  contract,  and  yet  in  fact  irremovability  is  complete.  Be- 
fore all  else,  they  count  on  mutual  loyalty.  Similarly,  although  the  consul- 
tation with  professors  is  not  written  in  the  by-laws,  it  takes  place  in  fact. 
The  general  principle  is  to  keep  the  maximum  of  flexibility  in  all  things.  So 
to  speak,  there  are  no  permanent  chairs.  Vacancies  are  filled  to  meet  the 
needs  which  the  present  state  of  ideas  and  of  the  sciences  suggests,  and 
not  by  tenaciousJly  keeping  a  branch  of  instruction  because  it  existed 
yesterday. 


56     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ment  is  the  most  liberal  were  those  where  the  least 
changes  were  desired.  Those  in  which  the  autocracy  of 
the  president  was,  on  the  contrary,  the  most  effective, 
were  the  most  in  favor  of  reform.  Some  administrative 
officers,  almost  alone,  favored  the  status  quo. 

Such  are  the  complaints  of  a  moral  order  which  the 
professors  formulate.  The  general  organization  of  the 
American  university  is  certainly  behind  that  of  the 
other  great  scientific  nations,  as  to  the  independence  of 
the  teaching  staff. 

It  is  no  less  interesting  to  examine  the  financial  situa- 
tion of  the  professors.  First  let  us  follow  them  through 
the  various  phases  of  their  career. 

The  Bachelor  of  Arts  who  is  looking  forward  to  a  pro- 
fessorship, remains  at  the  university  as  a  graduate 
after  his  four  years  of  college,  and  spends  three  years  in 
becoming  a  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  Ph.D.,  a  title  which 
he  obtains  when  about  twenty-seven  or  twenty-eight 
years  old.  If  he  is  not  rich,  he  has  been  dogged  by 
physical  necessities  during  this  period.  These  necessi- 
ties are  often  more  or  less  alleviated  by  scholarships  or 
fellowships  provided  by  private  foundations  and  in  com- 
pensation for  which  he  has  often  already  taken  part,  as 
assistant,  in  teaching.  These  subsidies  sometimes  have 
the  form  of  traveling  fellowships.  They  have  some- 
times been  criticized  as  tempting  mediocre  individuals, 
who  without  them  would  have  been  eliminated  by 
selection.  But  it  suffices  in  order  to  justify  them,  to 
show  that  some  of  the  most  noteworthy  men  have 
been  able,  thanks  to  them,  to  pass  the  difficult  period. 
That  is  what  Mr.  E.  B.  Wilson  remarked  concerning 
himself. 


UNIVERSITIES  57 

About  the  time  of  his  doctorate,  the  future  professor 
arrives  at  his  first  regular  functions,  on  being  appointed 
instructor.  The  instructor  is  the  equivalent  of  the  pre- 
parateur  or  chef  de  travaux  pratiques  of  our  faculties  of 
sciences,  but  he  exists  in  every  branch  of  teaching  and 
not  only  in  the  case  of  the  experimental  sciences.  He 
is  charged  with  following  closely  the  studies  of  a  group 
of  students.  That  is  an  excellent  idea;  the  organization 
of  a  good  corps  of  instructors  is  the  best  way  of  as- 
suring the  regularity  and  solidity  of  studies  for  the 
students.  The  instructor  is  in  general  reappointed 
annually. 

The  following  stage  is  that  of  assistant  professor,1 
which  can  be  compared  to  that  of  our  maitrises  de  con- 
fSrences.  The  assistant  professor  is  generally  appointed 
for  limited  periods  of  time,  most  often  for  three  years, 
which  may  be  renewed.  From  the  intellectual  point  of 
view,  he  is  completely  free  in  his  teaching. 

After  a  rather  long  time  passed  as  assistant  professor 
-  automatically  at  the  end  of  eight  or  ten  years  in  cer- 
tain privileged  universities,  like  Harvard  —  or,  more 
often  according  to  the  circumstances  and  the  vacancies, 
he  becomes  a  full  professor,  that  is  to  say,  professeur 
titulaire,  or  associate  professor.  This  last  grade  answers 
very  well  to  our  professomt-adjoint,  but  in  many  uni- 
versities it  is  a  sort  of  shelving  process  for  those  who 

1  Mr.  G.  Marx  published  in  Science,  May  14, 1909,  March  18-25, 1910,  an 
investigation  of  the  professor's  career  and  especially  of  assistant  professors. 
The  result  of  it  is  that  the  average  age  in  this  rank  is  thirty-six  years.  The 
average  age  at  appointment  is  thirty-one.  For  120  persons  who  were  investi- 
gated, the  average  duration  of  their  studies  had  been  seven  years.  Sixty-five 
per  cent  of  them  had  had  scholarships,  and  45  per  cent  of  those  in  this  latter 
class  had  not  been  able,  nevertheless,  to  finish  their  studies  without  contract- 
ing debts  which  burden  their  finances  for  some  time. 


58     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

have  hardly  any  chance  of  reaching  the  full  professor- 
ship. 

This  hierarchy  is  very  uniform  in  the  various  insti- 
tutions, but  beneath  the  unity  of  names  the  real  situa- 
tions are  very  different,  materially  and  morally. 

It  will  be  noted  that  at  Harvard,  which  in  many 
respects  can  be  regarded  as  the  standard  university, 
advancement  is  automatic,  or  at  least  largely  independ- 
ent of  circumstances.  That  might  produce  what  in 
France  is  called  titularisation  personnelle.  But  we  must 
note,  in  justice  to  this  advancement  by  the  mere  pas- 
sage of  time,  undoubtedly  deadly  to  an  indispensable 
selection,  that  there  are  two  capital  correctives,  which 
really  maintain  an  efficacious  selection.  The  first  is  the 
grade  of  associate  professor,  as  has  just  been  explained. 
The  second  is  the  fact  that  only  the  men  who  have  a 
certain  worth  tend  to  remain  at  Harvard  to  round  out 
their  whole  career.  The  inferior  are  brought  by  the 
force  of  things  to  emigrate  sooner  or  later  into  the  less 
important  universities,  or  even  abandon  the  calling  in 
the  first  years. 

To  what  in  salary  do  the  various  degrees  of  the  hier- 
archy correspond?  If  we  represent  the  average  pay  of 
full  professors  by  100,  that  of  the  other  grades  is  rep- 
resented by  the  following  figures,1  in  a  few  universities 
which  I  have  chosen  as  examples. 

Harvard        Cornell     Stanford  Wisconsin  California 

Instructor 23.7         29.1         33.1          38 

Assistant  professor 61.6         54.7         45.8          59  49.4 

Associate  professor 81.6          ...  63.4          75  68.8 

The  instructor  in  the  large  universities  begins  with  a 
salary  of  $1000  to  $1200  and  receives  annual  increases 

1  Science,  May  14,  1909. 


UNIVERSITIES  59 

of  $100  to  $200  up  to  a  maximum  of  $1600  (Harvard) 
or  $2000  (Columbia). 


Salary 

Instruc- 
tors 

Assistant 
and 
Associate 
Professors 

Full 
Professors 

Total 
Number 

Per  Cent 
of  Total 

Compar- 
ative Per- 
centage for 
the  Per- 
sonnel of 
the  Public 
High 

Schools,  in 
1908 

Less  than  $750.  . 

51 

.... 

51 

1.2 

30.5 

$750-$1249  

911 

74 

12 

997 

23.4 

44.3 

1250-  1749  

386 

447 

147 

980 

23.0 

13.0 

1750-  2249  

29 

483 

227 

739 

17.3 

7.1 

2250-  2749  
2750-  3249 

3 

194 
76 

266 

286 

463 

362 

10.9 

85 

3.1 
1  6 

3250-  3749 

17 

205 

222 

5.2 

0.5 

3750-  4249  
4250-  4749 

9 

194 

67 

203 
67 

4.8 
1.6 

4750-  5249  
5250-  5749 

95 
40 

95 
40 

2.2 
0.9 

5750-  5249  

25 

25 

0.6 

More  than  $6250 
Total  . 

1,380 

1,300 

18 
1,582 

18 
4,262 

0.4 
100.0 

100.1 

The  salary  of  an  assistant  professor  varies,  under  the 
same  conditions,  from  $1800  to  $3500;  that  of  full 
professors  from  $3000  to  $5000.*  Harvard  and  Colum- 
bia are,  in  a  general  way,  the  universities  in  which  the 
salaries  are  the  highest  and  in  which  the  personal  situa- 
tion is  the  safest.2  In  order  to  judge  the  financial 
situation  of  all  the  professors,  I  reproduce  the  statistics 3 

1  The  normal  pay  of  full  professors  at  Harvard  varies  froln  $4000  to 
$5000,  by  increases  of  $500  every  five  years. 

2  The  percentage  to  the  total  of  the  salaries  to  the  total  budget  of  ex- 
penses varies  from  37  per  cent  (University  of  Missouri)  to  75  per  cent 
(Columbia,  Princeton,  Pennsylvania,  New  York  University).    The  cost, 
calculated  per  capita  of  the  students,  varies  from  $100  (University  of  Syra- 
cuse) to  $475  (Harvard,  Johns  Hopkins). 

3  Science,  June  12,  1914. 


60     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

condensed  in  the  table  on  p.  59,  and  borrowed  from 
a  work  executed  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the 
Advancement  of  Teaching.  It  deals  with  61  colleges 
of  varying  importance  and  relates  to  the  year  1912-13. 
As  another  indication,  taken  from  the  same  source, 
concerning  201  full  professors  of  Harvard  and  Columbia: 

4  receive  less  than     $3000 

12  "  from             3000  to  $4000 

35  "                            4000 

30  "                            4500 

44  "                            5000 

38  "  from             5000  to  5500 

21  "                            6000 

17  "  more  than    6000 

The  preceding  figures,  converted  into  francs,  give 
much  higher  numbers  than  the  French  salaries.  But 
in  order  to  judge  them,  we  must  of  course  put  them  in 
the  surrounding  conditions  of  life.  On  the  whole,  the 
situation  of  professors  of  American  universities  is  col- 
lectively notably  better  than  that  of  their  French  col- 
leagues, yet  is  not,  for  all  that,  more  than  mediocre. 
The  pay  is  not  at  all  in  proportion  to  the  severity  of  the 
previous  selection,  nor  to  the  social  function  performed; 
and  it  furnishes  the  family,  in  the  setting  of  American 
life,  only  a  very  restricted  budget.  Consideration  for 
the  profession  by  the  masses,  who  judge  according  to 
the  salary,  is  very  slight.  The  university  profession  has 
not  in  general,  the  moral  and  worldly  situation  which 
it  deserves  in  a  rich  democracy  like  that  of  the  United 
States,  and  which  it  ought  to  have  in  order  to  retain  a 
high  class  of  men.1 

1  These  considerations  of  course  apply  to  France,  where  also  the  univer- 
sity career  is  too  mediocre  financially  and  too  uncertain.  They  apply,  more- 
over, to  almost  all  countries.  In  Germany,  by  the  confession  of  the  most 


: 


UNIVERSITIES  61 

The  professors  complain  that  the  enormous  develop- 
ment of  the  universities  and  colleges  in  the  past  thirty 
years  has  been  made  at  their  expense.  The  increase  of 
their  pay,  contrary  to  the  case  of  most  professions,  has 
not  even  followed  that  of  the  cost  of  living.  Besides, 
the  ratio  of  the  number  of  full  professors  to  that  of  the 
students  and  of  the  professors  of  lower  grades  has  been 
constantly  on  the  decrease.  Access  to  the  best  posi- 
tions thus  becomes  more  difficult  and  more  tardy, 
while  the  quality  of  the  personnel  has  been  improved. 
Many  instructors  of  today,  they  say,  are  as  good  as 
professors  of  yesterday.  Mr.  G  Marx l  sees  the  reason 
for  this  disproportion  in  the  fact  that  the  managing 
councils,  the  boards  of  trustees,  have  too  often  sacrificed 
the  interests  of  the  teaching  staff  to  the  development  of 
the  exterior,  in  order  to  attract  and  maintain  the  pat- 
ronage, by  exaggerated  increase  in  the  number  of 
branches  of  instruction,  construction  of  sumptuous 
new  buildings,  exaggerated  luxury  of  all  the  university 

esteemed  professors,  it  seems  that  the  generation  which  is  coming  into  its 
university  chairs  is  not  as  worthy  as  the  older,  because  the  finest  of  the  youth 
have  recently  been  too  much  attracted  by  the  development  of  industry.  Ger- 
man universities  have,  moreover,  owed  a  part  of  their  vitality  to  the  constant 
afflux  of  foreigners  to  its  chairs.  This  afflux  was  explained,  as  we  must  recog- 
nize, in  part  by  the  strength  of  their  organization  and  of  their  professorial 
staff,  but  also  in  part  by  the  superstition  of  the  entire  world  regarding  the 
virtues  of  German  things.  The  academic  career  itself  is,  in  the  generality 
of  cases,  very  mediocre  in  Germany  from  the  point  of  view  of  money.  But 
it  attracted,  on  the  one  hand  by  reason  of  the  consideration  which  it  enjoyed, 
and  on  the  other  hand  because  in  almost  all  specialties  there  were  some  chairs 
bringing  in  a  great  deal.  It  was  the  big  prize  which  each  one,  at  the  begin- 
ning, hoped  to  win,  and  which  made  them  take  the  lottery  tickets,  that  is  to 
say,  which  determined  them  to  enter  upon  the  career.  With  us,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  big  prizes  do  not  exist.  There  is  no  incentive  to  activity.  Good 
and  bad  are  recompensed  about  equally. 
1  Science,  May  14,  1909. 


62     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

life.  They  have  almost  always  preferred  to  satisfy 
needs  of  this  kind  to  the  detriment  of  the  personnel. 
These  faults  are  of  course  greatest  in  institutions  of  the 
second  and  third  class  because  of  the  spirit  of  bigness 
and  the  ambition  to  follow,  at  any  price,  the  example 
of  the  great. 

In  order  to  complete  this  picture  of  the  material  and 
moral  position  of  the  professors,  I  will  say  a  word  about 
the  end  of  their  career  and  about  the  question  of  pen- 
sions.   Aside  from  certain  large  universities,  it  seems 
that  until  a  few  years  ago,  nothing  was  provided  on  that 
score.    The  professors  taught  as  long  as  they  could,  or 
as  long  as  the  trustees  found  them  in  a  state  of  good 
behavior.    It  was  left  for  them  to  take,  by  insurance, 
the  necessary  measures  of  foresight,  and  certain  people 
are  still  of  opinion  that  that  was  a  good  system.    In 
these  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  the  individual  is  used  to 
counting   only   on   himself.     Fifteen   years   ago,   Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie,  desirous  "of  serving  the  cause  of 
higher  education  by  improving  the  teaching  profession 
and  augmenting  its  dignity,"  devoted  a  part  of  his  for- 
tune to  the  creation  of  a  system  of  retirement  pensions. 
On  the  one  hand,  he  instituted  the  Carnegie  Corpora- 
tion of  New  York,  for  "advancement  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  understanding,"  endowed  with  125  mil- 
lion dollars,  and  in  1905  the  Carnegie  Foundation  for 
the  Advancement  of  Teaching.     This  latter,  at  the  end 
of  1913,  had  been  endowed  by  him  with  15  million 
dollars,  and  under  the  administration  of  a  board  of 
trustees,  composed  mainly  of  university  presidents,  it 
was  charged  with  organizing  a  system  of  pensions  in 
the  universities  and  colleges.    Mr.  Carnegie  excluded, 


UNIVERSITIES  68 

however,  at  the  beginning,  the  state  universities,  think- 
ing that  the  state  must  do  what  is  needful  for  them; 
and  all  the  sectarian  institutions.  Those  only  which 
are  undenominational  were  called  to  benefit  from  the 
Foundation.  It  is  admirable  to  see  an  individual  pro- 
pose to  himself  the  realization  of  a  work  of  such  breadth. 

The  rules  adopted  by  the  Carnegie  Foundation  recog- 
nized the  right  to  a  pension  at  sixty-five  years  of  age, 
and  fifteen  years  of  teaching  with  at  least  the  grade  of 
assistant  professor,  or  indeed  after  twenty-five  years  of 
teaching  thus  defined,  without  condition  of  age,  or 
finally  indeed  in  case  of  infirmity.  The  amount  of  the 
pension  is  based  on  the  pay  of  the  last  five  years,  with 
a  maximum  of  $3000.  It  can  reach  as  much  as  90  per 
cent  of  that  pay,  when  it  does  not  go  over  $1600.  Wid- 
ows have  a  right  to  half  of  their  husband's  pension. 
All  this  is  applicable  only  to  persons  for  whom  teaching 
is  the  essential  profession,  and  not,  for  example,  to 
physicians  and  engineers,  for  whom  it  is  only  an  acces- 
sory resource. 

The  Carnegie  Foundation  has  been  working  now  for 
ten  years,  but  it  is  not  certain  that  it  will  not  meet 
with  serious  difficulties.  It  seems  that  the  pensions 
asked  for  require,  and  especially  will  require,  an  amount 
greater  than  the  provisions.  The  managers  of  the 
Foundation  announce  today  that  the  pension  can  be 
morally  claimed  only  by  professors  whose  forces  have 
become  enfeebled,  against  which  protests  are  raised 
justified  by  the  promises  made.  Mr.  Cattell  had  already 
in  1909  formulated  certain  serious  objections  and  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  the  intervention  of  an  individ- 
ual should  not  excuse  the  institutions  themselves  from 
assuring  the  lot  of  their  staff.  The  Foundation  should 


64     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

improve  on  what  the  universities  should  have  done, 
following  their  strict  duty,  by  completing,  for  example 
up  to  the  total  of  the  salary,  the  fraction  which  the  uni- 
versity had  provided.  According  to  him,  the  defect  of 
the  system  is,  that  it  has  its  maximum  of  efficacy  in  the 
cases  in  which  the  Foundation  was  the  least  necessary. 
On  the  other  hand  he  fears  that  its  existence  will  con- 
tribute to  cause  the  resignation  of  professors  against 
their  will,  a  procedure  which  the  university  could  not 
previously  have  brought  to  pass.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  discuss  this  question  fully.  But  it  seemed  to  me  in- 
teresting to  note  its  elements,  especially  because  the 
conditions  laid  down  are  so  far  from  our  bureaucratic 
customs. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  S1UDENTS  AND  THE  INSTRUCTION 

The  classical  college  (undergraduate).  Admission.  Organization  of  studies. 
Departments.  Coordination  of  courses.  Examinations  and  graduation. 
College  life.  Social  and  collective  life.  The  dormitories.  Clubs  and  fraterni- 
ties. Sports  and  athletics.  Various  associations,  dramatic  societies.  The 
general  results  of  college  studies. 

A  FTER  the  administration  and  the  professors,  the  stu- 
<**•  dents.  With  regard  to  them,  we  must  take  up  one 
by  one  each  of  the  parts  which  we  have  distinguished  in 
the  university:  in  the  first  place,  the  college.  We  have 
seen  that  it  is  the  fundamental  part,  historically  and 
actually.  Many  institutions  are  limited  to  the  college 
alone;  in  most  of  the  large  universities  it  is  numerically 
the  predominant  part.  Of  5000  Harvard  students, 
3000  belong  to  the  college.  It  is  the  college  which  still 
impresses  on  the  university  its  characteristic  traits.  It 
is  more  or  less  distinct;  in  recent  institutions  it  may 
not  perhaps  exist  explicitly,  yet  its  spirit  persists  and 
is  on  the  whole  constant.  I  will  try  to  give  an  idea  of  it, 
especially  as  it  is  at  Harvard,  where  I  was  able  to  ob- 
serve it  devisu. 

And  first,  how  is  the  college  recruited? 
The  student  enters  college  at  about  the  age  of  eight- 
een years,  after  leaving  the  high  school,  or  the  secondary 
school  where  he  has  remained,  usually  four  years,  from 
the  age  of  fourteen  to  eighteen.  Normally  studies  con- 
tinue four  years,  and  the  student  is  called  successively 
freshman,  sophomore,  junior,  senior.  As  has  already 
been  said,  he  enters  with  an  intellectual  training  little 

65 


66     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

advanced,  and  a  not  very  homogeneous  stock  of  knowl- 
edge. In  fact,  the  elective  system  which  had  been  in- 
troduced into  the  college  has  been  carried  over  into 
secondary  instruction  in  large  measure.  Each  one 
tends  to  take  secondary  studies  as  suits  his  tastes,  or 
rather,  his  whim.  That  is,  perhaps,  a  general  aspect  of 
contemporary  American  mentality,  in  matters  of  edu- 
cation, and  is  certainly  connected  with  the  prosperity 
and  absolute  safety  of  this  people,  as  well  as  with  the 
ease  with  which  it  has  been  able  hitherto  to  move  over 
an  immense  territory  of  virgin  riches.  They  try  to  com- 
pel the  child  as  little  as  possible,  to  present  life  to  it 
under  its  most  smiling  form,  to  spare  it  opposition,  to 
make  work  appear  to  it  under  the  form  of  pleasure 
rather  than  of  duty.  This  is  very  striking,  even  though 
one  lives  only  a  little  in  the  intimacy  of  a  family.  By 
virtue  of  this  tendency,  they  treat  the  schoolboy  too 
much  like  a  student,  to  the  detriment  of  healthy  intel- 
lectual discipline.  So  he  often  arrives,  after  leaving  the 
high  school,  with  considerable  deficiencies  even  in  the 
knowledge  of  English. 

A  certain  number  of  colleges  admit  students  on  mere 
presentation  of  high  school  certificates,  which  show 
that  they  have  followed  a  regular  course  of  secondary 
studies,  and  enumerate  the  subjects  they  have  studied. 
Sometimes  this  certificate  is  only  recognized  when  com- 
ing from  qualified  high  schools,  that  is,  from  those  on 
a  special  list,  kept  to  date,  according  to  results  which 
freshmen  of  preceding  years  produce,  and  which  permit 
them  to  estimate  the  schools  from  which  they  come. 
But  many  large  universities,  especially  in  the  East, 
and  this  is  the  case  with  Harvard,  admit  their  students 
only  after  a  special  entrance  examination,  which  they 


UNIVERSITIES  67 

arrange  for  each  year,  and  which  comprehends  obliga- 
tory subjects  and  optional  subjects.1  Thus  every 
freshman  enters  with  a  certain  specialization,  and  a 
record  is  kept  of  his  previous  studies.2 

Thus  Harvard  receives  at  present  600  or  700  freshmen 
a  year.  They  constitute  a  class,  which  is  designated  by 
the  year  of  graduation,  that  is,  of  the  year  when  it  will 
be  the  senior  class.  The  freshmen  who  entered  in  1913, 
for  example,  form  the  class  of  '17.  Outside  of  these 
regular  students,  there  are  some  who  are  admitted  on 
exceptional  conditions,  and  are  called  special  students, 
or  out-of -course,  or  unclassified. 

The  university  lectures  are  not  public.  Only  the  regu- 
lar students,  specially  enrolled  in  each  of  them,  are 
admitted. 

Harvard  draws  its  students  from  very  varied  social 
classes,  and  from  all  over  the  United  States.  The  uni- 
versity consciously  makes  an  effort  to  be  a  unifying 
factor  in  the  country. 

We  have  brought  the  student  to  college:  how  are  his 
studies  regulated?  He  is  in  a  general  way  much  guided 
and  much  watched.  Each  one  decides  at  the  beginning 
the  program  of  studies  he  will  choose,  following  the 
elective  principle,  under  the  direction  of  a  professor  3 

1  Here  is  one  of  the  combinations  of  subjects:   1,  English,  2,  Latin  (or 
French  or  German  or  Spanish),  3,  elementary  mathematics  (or  physics  or 
chemistry),  4,  a  fourth  subject  taken  from  those  in  the  first  three  groups 
which  had  not  been  chosen. 

2  The  students  entering  with  part  of  their  studies  finished,  coming  from 
another  college,  are  admitted  with  credit  for  the  studies  already  completed 
by  them,  and  for  the  time  which  they  have  devoted  to  them.    The  various 
studies  are  carefully  scaled  in  value  during  the  four  years,  and  each  study 
has  a  definite  value. 

3  At  Harvard  each  professor  takes  charge  of  four  students  each  year. 
For  them  it  is  a  chance,  from  the  beginning  of  their  course,  to  form  friendly 
relations  with  him. 


68     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

designated  by  a  permanent  Committee  on  the  Choice 
of  Electives.  Thus  a  plan  of  studies  is  traced  for  him, 
adapted  to  the  career  which  he  counts  on  undertaking. 
During  the  first  two  years,  certain  subjects  are  obliga- 
tory, like  English  composition,  and  a  minimum  number 
of  courses  must  belong  to  the  same  group  of  studies. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  system  may  be  a  burden  for 
the  professors,  whom  it  obliges,  outside  of  their  lectures, 
to  do  very  considerable  administrative  work,  in  guiding 
and  following  the  students. 

The  courses  of  instruction  are  extremely  numerous 
and  all  those  which  relate  to  one  science  or  to  a  group 
of  related  sciences,  constitute  a  department.  Each  de- 
partment has  either  a  head,  who  regulates  all  the  in- 
struction within  it,  or,  in  more  democratic  fashion, 
which  is  that  of  Harvard,  a  chairman,  a  sort  of  president- 
secretary,  charged  simply  with  the  coordination  of  the 
work,  and  with  the  relations  between  the  department 
and  the  central  organs  of  the  university. 

These  departments,  which  are  enumerated  here,  are 
divided  at  Harvard  into  four  large  groups: 

1.  Languages,  Fine  Arts,  and  Music:  Semitic  Lan- 
guages and  History,  Indie  Philology,   Classical  Lan- 
guages, English,  Germanic  Languages  and  Literatures, 
French    and    Romance    Languages    and    Literatures, 
Comparative  Literature,  Fine  Arts,  Music.    In  addi- 
tion, Egyptology,  Slavic  languages. 

2.  Natural  Sciences:  Physics,  Chemistry,  Engineer- 
ing Sciences,  Botany,  Zoology,  Geology  and  Geography, 
Mineralogy  and  Petrography,  Astronomy,  Hygiene  and 
Public  Health,  History  of  Sciences. 

3.  History  and  Social  and  Political  Sciences :  History 
(with  numerous  subdivisions),  Government  (Constitu- 


UNIVERSITIES  69 

tions,  General  Legislation,  International  Law  and 
Diplomacy),  Economic  Sciences,  Education,  Anthro- 
pology. 

4.  Philosophy  and  Mathematics;  Philosophy  and 
Psychology,  Social  Ethics,  Mathematics.1 

You  see  what  a  variety  of  subjects  the  college  carries. 
It  aims  to  furnish  the  possibility  of  complete  general 
culture,  including  even  the  general  parts  of  law  and  of 
the  economic  sciences.  It  must  be  added  that  in  every 
department  the  courses  are  very  numerous.  As  ex- 
amples, I  note  in  the  Harvard  catalogue  for  1915-16, 
27  distinct  courses  in  the  division  of  Semitic  Languages, 
6  in  Egyptology,  22  in  French,  9  in  Italian,  8  in  Spanish, 
4  in  Celtic,  8  in  Slavic  Languages,  about  thirty  in  Com- 
parative Literature,  22  courses  in  Physics,  more  than 
30  in  Chemistry,  16  in  Zoology,  about  twenty  courses 
in  Pedagogy  (Education),  14  in  Anthropology,  divided 
over  a  cycle  of  two  years.  The  variety  is  no  less,  if  one 
opens  the  Register  of  the  University  of  Ohio  or  Colum- 
bia, or  of  Cornell.  At  Cornell,  where  Entomology  has 
had  a  very  great  development,  in  view  of  its  applica- 
tions to  agriculture,  it  is  represented  by  more  than  20 
courses.2 

These  courses  are  of  different  levels.  At  Harvard  each 
one  is  classified  by  one  of  the  three  following  character- 
izations: 1.  Primarily  for  undergraduates,  these  are  the 
fundamental  and  elementary  courses;  2.  For  under- 
graduates and  graduates,  these  are  higher  courses  to 

1  This  enumeration  characterizes  an  institution  very  much  impregnated 
with  the  classical  education.   In  the  state  universities,  of  a  much  more  nar- 
rowly utilitarian  spirit,  the  classics  hold,  in  a  general  way,  a  lesser  place,  and 
on  the  contrary,  practical  teaching,  so-called,  has  a  more  or  less  preponderant 
place. 

2  See  P.  Marchal,  loc.  tit.,  p.  264. 


70     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

which  students  are  not  admitted  until  they  have  taken 
the  corresponding  elementary  courses;  3.  Primarily  for 
graduates,  these  are  advanced  and  specialized  courses, 
intended  especially  for  graduates,  to  which  college 
students  may  be  admitted  in  their  last  years,  if  they 
have  the  necessary  knowledge. 

Such  a  system  lends  itself  to  an  almost  unlimited 
diversification  of  studies.  Most  of  these  are  half-year 
courses,1  and  comprehend  two  or  three  lessons,  of  an 
hour,  or  more  exactly,  fifty-three  minutes,  a  week.  In  ex- 
perimental sciences,  one  lesson  is  generally  transformed 
into  a  laboratory  period.  Each  course  forms  a  class,  in 
which  assiduity  is  controlled;  the  work  is  watched. 
At  the  end  of  the  half-year  the  student  undergoes  a 
written  examination  on  each  course,  in  which  he  usually 
answers  ten  questions.  This  number  of  questions  tests 
him  on  the  various  parts  of  the  course,  but  in  a  rather 
superficial  fashion. 

To  obtain  the  Bachelor's  degree,  the  student  must 
pass  in  a  satisfactory  manner  thirty-two  examinations  of 
this  kind,  spread  over  four  years,  or  eight  half-years. 
That  leads  him  to  take  normally  four  courses  a  half- 
year. 

It  is  thus  clear  what  the  college  student's  system  of 
studies  is  during  the  four  years  which  he  spends  there. 
The  extreme  flexibility  of  it  must  be  remembered.  Each 
one  can  push  his  studies  in  the  direction  which  interests 
him.  As  for  the  value  of  the  result,  it  depends  on  the 
ardor  of  the  student  in  his  work.  We  must  have  no 

1  The  first  half-year  opens  in  the  last  week  of  September  and  lasts  till 
the  end  of  January;  the  second  goes  from  February  to  about  the  beginning 
of  June.  The  academic  year  ends  between  June  20  and  June  25  with  the 
Commencement  festivities. 


UNIVERSITIES  71 

illusions  about  it;  with  the  average,  it  is  not  very  great. 
Studies  are  only  one  of  the  elements  of  college  life,  and 
for  many  they  are  not  the  chief  element.  Good  scholars 
are  not  the  glory  of  their  class.  The  very  diversity  of 
studies  tends  to  render  them  somewhat  superficial.  The 
Harvard  studies  and  Bachelor's  degree,  under  these 
conditions,  are  something  hybrid  between  our  studies  in 
the  lycSe  and  our  Faculties  of  Letters,  or  of  Sciences,  or 
of  Law,  put  together.  An  A.B.  graduate  means  more 
than  one  of  our  bacheliers.  His  age  of  twenty-two  years 
gives  him  more  maturity.  There  has  been  a  character 
of  freedom  in  his  studies  which  is  perhaps  the  true  ele- 
ment of  higher  education.  He  has  thus  been  able  to 
push  them  in  one  direction,  in  which  he  will  have  ac- 
quired very  profound  knowledge.1  To  sum  it  up,  the 
results  will  vary  enormously  according  to  individuals. 
They  may  be  excellent. 

What  is  true  of  Harvard  is  true  of  the  other  univer- 
sities. The  Harvard  Bachelor's  degree  is  undoubtedly 
among  the  best.  Those  of  the  600  universities  and  col- 
leges spread  over  a  long  scale  of  values.  In  a  general 
way,  what  seems  to  be  the  greatest  fault  is  the  lack  of 
solid  training  of  the  mind  by  secondary  teaching.  As 
Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson  said,  we  must  not  confound  edu- 
cation and  information.  In  the  American  system,  there 

1  Thus  I  had  occasion  to  see,  at  Harvard,  some  very  good  students  of 
biology.  They  had  brought  a  taste  for  it  to  the  university,  and  from  their 
college  years  had  been  able  to  develop  it.  The  biological  sciences  are  among 
those  for  which  the  conditions  are  better  in  America  than  in  France.  Natural 
history  has  a  rather  large  place  in  secondary  and  even  primary  instruction, 
and  above  all,  it  is  taught  by  keeping  closer  contact  with  nature.  Besides, 
nature  is  much  richer  and  less  deformed  by  civilization,  even  in  the  out- 
skirts of  many  cities.  The  liking  for  excursions  and  camping  is  also  a  factor 
which  opens  up  these  callings  in  youth. 


72     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

is,  from  the  intellectual  point  of  view,  too  much  infor- 
mation and  too  little  education. 

One  would  have  only  a  very  incomplete  idea  of  the 
American  college  or  university  if  one  looked  at  it  from 
the  purely  intellectual  point  of  view.  The  life,  properly 
speaking,  of  the  student,  especially  its  social  aspect,  is 
an  essential  element  of  it,  not  only  in  the  psychology  of 
the  student,  but  in  the  thought  of  many  educators. 
The  freshman  is  still  a  boy;  the  task  of  the  college  is 
to  make  a  man  of  him.  The  training  of  character  has 
an  importance  of  the  first  order.  It  is  a  question  of 
learning,  while  living  and  learning  to  live.  Our  purely 
intellectual  university  environment  seems  inhuman  to 
the  Americans,  according  to  the  very  expression  of  Mr. 
Barrett  Wendell,  who  has  nevertheless  seen  it  with  so 
much  sympathy.  "The  object  of  the  college,"  said  Mr. 
Lowell  in  1909,  on  assuming  the  presidency  of  Harvard, 
"is  not  to  produce  hermits,  each  imprisoned  in  his  in- 
tellectual cell,  but  men,  adapted  to  take  their  place  in 
the  community,  and  to  live  with  their  fellow- workers." 
He  says  further,  "The  college  produces  liberty  of 
thought,  breadth  of  views,  training  of  the  civic  spirit." 
This,  more  than  a  high  intellectual  training,  is  the  im- 
press which  it  leaves  on  the  majority  of  its  students. 

This  education  is  based  on  the  life  in  common  and 
the  development  of  sociability.  In  the  old  semi- 
ecclesiastical  college,  the  life  and  the  studies  were  com- 
mon to  all.  The  spirit  of  the  English  colleges  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  with  the  production  of  the  English 
gentleman  as  its  ideal,  was  continued.  The  diversifica- 
tion of  studies  and  the  multiplication  of  the  number  of 
the  students  have  destroyed  this  unity.  Many  uni- 


UNIVERSITIES  73 

versities,  and  Harvard  in  particular,  nevertheless  force 
themselves  to  maintain  it.  With  this  intention,  Har- 
vard has  built,  in  these  last  years,  along  the  Charles 
River,  four  large  dormitories,  in  which  the  students  live. 
Each  man  has  his  individual  room  or  apartment,  or 
groups  of  two,  three,  or  four  share  an  apartment,  giving 
to  all  the  bathroom,  which  seems  a  luxury  to  us.1  A 
refectory  brings  together  all  the  youths  in  each  one  of 
these  buildings,  and  in  a  large  and  comfortable  hall 
they  can  live  together  in  leisure  hours,  read  papers  and 
magazines  and  play  music.  From  their  entrance  into 
the  university,  they  are  thus  turned  away  from  the 
solitary  and  individualized  life  which  is  that  of  our 
student  youth,  and  are  led  toward  a  different  psychol- 
ogy. A  few  older  students,  the  proctors,  are  invested 
with  a  certain  authority  and  charged  with  maintaining 
order  and  good  behavior. 

In  the  following  years,  a  part  of  the  students  still 
live  in  dormitories.  Others  live  in  groups  in  houses, 

1  It  seems  interesting  to  me  to  give  an  idea  of  the  student's  budget.  The 
tuition  is  $200  a  year,  for  the  lectures,  to  which  must  be  added  laboratory 
fees,  for  each  course  in  the  experimental  sciences  ($2  to  $5  or  $10  a  half- 
year  course).  The  state  universities  admit  free,  so  far  as  tuition  is  concerned, 
students  of  the  state  to  which  they  belong;  and  others  at  a  very  low  tuition. 

Rooms  in  the  Harvard  dormitories  range  from  $30  to  $350  for  the  aca- 
demic year,  according  to  luxury.  The  student  can  board  in  the  university 
dining  halls  for  from  $5  or  $6  a  week  up.  The  university  has  organized  co- 
operative societies,  where  the  students  can  buy  their  books  and  all  sorts  of 
merchandise  very  advantageously. 

The  expenses  of  a  student  for  the  nine  months  of  the  academic  year  seem 
to  be  at  least  $600. 

At  Harvard,  there  are  about  300  scholarships  for  the  college,  whose  value 
ranges  from  $75  to  $300.  About  twenty,  however,  are  higher  than  this 
figure,  and  one  even  reaches  $700.  They  are  given  for  merit.  In  the  univer- 
sities, moreover,  it  is  not  rare  for  students  to  accept,  in  order  to  pay  their 
expenses,  jobs  which  among  us  would  be  considered  servile,  but  which  in 
America  do  not  lower  them  at  all  in  the  minds  of  their  comrades. 


74     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

each  being  under  the  responsibility  of  a  proctor.  For 
the  latter  class  of  students,  a  great  club,  the  Harvard 
Union,  formed  a  comfortable  place  in  which  to  rest  and 
lead  club  life.  The  large  dining  hall  or  Memorial  Hall, 
furnishes  board  in  common  at  favorable  rates. 

In  many  universities  where  the  common  life  is  less 
well  organized  than  at  Harvard,  there  are  numerous 
student  societies  or  clubs,  which,  it  must  be  said,  often 
have  an  exaggerated  character  of  luxury  or  of  snobbish- 
ness, but  which  are  yet  a  manifestation  of  collective 
life.  Certain  of  these  societies,  which  they  call  fraterni- 
ties, give  themselves  secret  charms  in  their  initiation 
ceremonies,  and  in  their  password,  and  are  generally 
designated  by  Greek  letters,  standing  for  a  mysterious 
motto,  such  as  AXP,  AA$,  ATA,  $A,  etc.  The  same 
society  is  represented  in  many  universities  by  affiliated 
chapters.1 

Another  very  important  aspect  of  college  life,  which 
is  connected  with  social  life  and  with  the  training  and 
character  of  the  man,  is  the  practice  of  physical  exer- 
cise, athletics  and  sports.  Athletics  hold  an  enormous 
place,  take  up  much  time,  and  are  in  general  encouraged. 
A  vast  gymnasium,  often  with  a  large  swimming  pool, 
an  enormous  stadium,  a  complete  equipment  for  boat- 
ing, are  essential  parts  of  every  American  university. 
In  the  psychology  of  the  students,  to  belong  to  the 
football  eleven,  or  the  baseball  nine,  or  the  crews,  or  on 
a  less  elevated  level,  the  tennis  team,  in  inter-university 
competitions,  is  a  title  of  glory  very  superior  to  the 

1  These  fraternities  must  not  be  confounded  with  two  societies  of  former 
students,  spread  all  over  America  and  having  quite  different  tendencies, 
$BK  (<i>iAo0-o<£ia  Biou  KvpepvrjT-rjs)  which  has  existed  for  a  century,  admits, 
on  leaving  college,  students  who  have  been  particularly  brilliant  in  literary 
studies,  SS  Qirovbuv  Shoves)  those  who  are  dedicated  to  scientific  research. 


UNIVERSITIES  75 

winning  of  honors  of  the  Bachelor's  degree.  The  boat 
races  between  Harvard  and  Yale  on  the  Thames  at 
New  London,  at  the  end  of  the  academic  year,  are  one 
of  the  great  events  of  the  year,  like  the  match  between 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  This  is  also  the  kind  of  glory 
which  lives  the  longest  in  the  memory  of  the  alumni. 
A  university  easily  finds  very  considerable  sums  to 
build  or  enlarge  a  stadium,  to  which  thousands  of 
spectators  come  to  watch  the  matches  between  uni- 
versities. Many  serious  minds  see  an  undoubted  abuse 
in  the  development  of  these  matches.  However,  the 
practice  of  sports  helps  to  give  American  youth  an  ele- 
gance of  body  and  a  physical  vigor  which  one  cannot 
but  envy.  It  is  encouraged  as  an  effectual  counter  to 
sensual  suggestions.  Finally,  in  a  general  way,  it  ac- 
customs them  to  discipline,  and  to  team  play,  for  later 
life.  A  mind  as  positive  as  F.  W.  Taylor,1  who  criti- 
cizes very  severely  the  too  great  part  of  whim  in  all 
American  education,  and  who  opposes  it  to  the  essen- 
tial condition  of  success  in  life  —  to  do  each  day  as 
well  as  possible  what  presents  itself  and  not  what  pleases 
-  considers  athletics  and  games  "one  of  the  most  use- 
ful elements  of  college  life,  and  that  for  two  reasons: 
1,  because  they  are  practised  with  profound  earnest- 
ness; 2,  because  they  put  in  play  not  the  idea  of  each 
acting  at  his  own  caprice,  but  of  working  together  and 
of  practising  this  cooperation  in  a  manner  like  that 
which  real  life  will  demand."  2  "Is  not  the  greatest 

1  Science,  November  9,  1906. 

2  "True  cooperation,  cooperation  upon  the  broadest  scale,  is  a  feature 
which  distinguishes  our  present  commercial  and  industrial  development  from 
that  of  one  hundred  years  ago.  Not  the  cooperation  taught  by  too  many  of 
our  trades-unions  which  are  misguided,  and  which  resembles  the  cooperation 
of  a  train  of  freight  cars,  but  rather  that  of  a  well-organized  manufacturing 


76     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

problem  in  university  life,"  he  adds,  "how  to  animate 
the  students  .  .  .  with  an  earnest,  logical  purpose?" 

The  sociability  of  college  life  is  expressed,  finally,  in 
the  innumerable  group  or  clubs  which  are  formed. 
Students  interested  in  the  study  of  French  at  Harvard 
—  and  elsewhere  —  have  formed  a  Cercle  frangais.  I 
was  pleasantly  received  there.  With  the  aid  of  Rad- 
cliffe  college  students,  this  Cercle  gives  each  year  per- 
formances of  French  plays,  of  course  in  French.  At  the 
Copley  Theatre  in  Boston  I  saw  this  troupe  of  students 
play,  for  the  benefit  of  our  blind  soldiers,  Edgar d  et  sa 
bonne,  by  Labiche,  and  a  quite  modern  play  of  actual 
interest,  Servir,  by  M.  Lavedan.  There  is  likewise  a 
Germanic  society,  and  very  numerous  debating  socie- 
ties, in  which  the  young  men  practise  public  argument. 

The  taste  for  the  theatre  is  very  much  alive,  particu- 
larly at  Harvard,  where  the  professor  of  dramatic  lit- 
erature, Mr.  G.  P.  Baker,  instead  of  limiting  himself  to 
lectures  ex  cathedra,  has  his  Harvard  and  Radcliffe  stu- 
dents write  plays  which  are  then  performed  before  the 
university  families,  on  the  little  Radcliffe  stage,  while 
waiting  for  the  generosity  of  alumni  to  make  the  build- 
ing of  a  real  theatre  possible.  Thus  every  year  the 
department  of  dramatic  literature,  which  is  called  the 
47  Workshop,  gives  a  few  performances  of  unpublished 
plays,  and  guests  are  urgently  asked  to  formulate  on 
the  spot  their  remarks  and  criticisms. 

The  press  of  a  university  like  Harvard  is  another 
manifestation  of  social  life.  The  students  edit  three  or 
four  papers,  more  or  less  satirical,  Harvard  Crimson 

establishment,  which  is  typified  by  the  cooperation  of  the  various  parts  of 
a  watch,  each  member  of  which  performs  and  is  supreme  in  its  own  function, 
and  yet  is  controlled  by  and  must  work  harmoniously  with  many  others." 


UNIVERSITIES  77 

(daily),  Harvard  Lampoon,  etc.   In  every  way,  one  feels 
the  taste  for  collective  activity. 

On  the  whole,  college  life,  by  its  relative  luxury,  by 
the  spirit  which  predominates  and  by  its  traditions, 
without  being  aristocratic,  nevertheless  suits  especially 
rich  youth,  who  do  not  bring  to  it  an  ardent  desire  for 
study.    The  greatest  individualities  rarely  come  out  of 
the  college.    They  are  generally  self-made  men.    That 
is  the  case  with  Graham  Bell,  the  inventor  of  the  tele- 
phone, Edison,  and  most  of  the  great  captains  of  indus- 
try, like  Carnegie  or  Rockefeller.    Many  young  men 
go  to  college  because  their  parents  went  there,  because 
their  families  think  they  will  form  agreeable  and  useful 
relations  there,  finally  and  above  all  because  young 
men  are  known  to  pass  pleasant  lives  there.    With  its 
good  qualities  and  its  defects,  the  college  forms  a  social 
elite,  especially  from  the  general  point  of  view  of  cul- 
ture.  All  factors  combined,  it  produces  the  dominating 
personalities  in  most  careers,  and  passing  through  col- 
lege appears  a  weighty  element  to  ensure  success  in  life. 
This  consideration  of  success  holds  a  very  large  place 
in  American  psychology.  One  sees  it  expressed  at  every 
moment  in  the  addresses  of  educators.  Leland  Stanford 
University  itself  depicts  its  goal  as  being  "  to  fit  young 
persons  for  success  in  life."    Between  the  universities 
and  colleges,  all  aspiring  to  grow,  there  is  a  very  lively 
competition,  and  each  tries  to  persuade  the  public  that 
the  sacrifices  endured  for  the  education  which  it  gives, 
are  a  good  investment  for  the  future. 

The  judgment  on  the  American  college  is  therefore 
necessarily  complex.  It  is  not  an  institution  of  a  purely 
intellectual  order,  nor  fully  answering  our  conception 


78     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  higher  education.  From  this  point  of  view  one  may 
criticize  it  very  severely,  as  does  Mr.  J.  McK.  Cattell: 1 
"Students  who  complete  the  work  of  the  high  school  at 
the  age  of  eighteen  can  not  to  advantage  spend  the  four 
subsequent  years  in  a  country  club,  where  what  time 
can  be  spared  from  athletics  and  social  enjoyments  may 
be  given  to  studies  that  are  irrelevant  to  their  work  in 
life.  Such  a  system  may  be  proper  for  a  hereditary 
aristocracy  of  wealth,  but  it  no  longer  obtains  even  in 
Great  Britain,  where  Oxford  and  Cambridge  are  being 
transformed  into  professional  universities."  But  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  not  that  austere  abstraction,  sep- 
arated from  life  properly  so-called,  and  built  out  of 
whole  cloth  by  the  state,  without  habits  of  active  col- 
laboration, without  any  spontaneous  and  cordial  partic- 
ipation on  the  part  of  the  public,  such  as  are  our 
Faculties.  A  throng  of  lively  youth  animates  the  cam- 
pus and  is  sincerely  attached  to  it.  They  carry  away 
from  it  pleasant  memories,  oftener  than  the  solid  bag- 
gage of  a  scholar.  Is  it  necessary  that  there  should  be 
in  it  an  enormous  number  of  strong  scholars?  Besides, 
the  system  does  not  at  all  shut  out  their  production, 
any  more  than  the  development  of  strong  scientific  in- 
dividualities. One  may  reproach  it  especially  with  be- 
ing, in  spite  of  the  correctives  which  are  applied  to  it, 
too  much  for  the  use  of  the  wealthy  classes,  and  with 
furnishing,  for  the  average  case,  a  culture  not  suffici- 
ently deep  to  be  fertile.  That  is  moreover  the  pro- 
found cause  of  the  college  crisis  of  which  I  have  already 
spoken,  and  which  the  examination  of  the  other  parts 
of  the  university  will  make  more  definite. 

1  Science,  September  20,  1907. 


CHAPTER  VII 

YOUNG  WOMEN  AND  THE  COLLEGE 

Prevalence  of  coeducation  in  the  western  universities.  Its  still  exceptional 
character  in  the  eastern.  Women's  colleges.  Parallelism  of  studies.  Social 
results.  Education  and  the  race  problem. 

IN  the  preceding  chapter  it  was  a  question  of  men 
students  only  of  the  college.  But  beside  them  we 
cannot  ignore  the  women  students,  who  are  not  in  any 
degree  a  rare  or  exceptional  phenomenon. 

The  colleges  and  universities  contain  in  all,  a  large 
and  rapidly  increasing  number  of  women.  In  1889-90, 
there  were  20,874  women,  38,900  in  1900-01;  77,120 
in  1913-14.  In  the  last  quarter-century  the  number  of 
women  taking  advanced  studies  has  therefore  more  than 
trebled;  and  it  is  more  than  half  the  number  of  men. 

In  the  cultivated  class  in  moderately  easy  circum- 
stances in  the  East,  young  women  frequently  pass 
through  college,  from  the  age  of  eighteen  to  twenty-two, 
like  the  young  men,  and  take  entirely  parallel  studies. 
The  American  woman,  on  this  social  level,  has,  on  the 
whole,  a  more  solid  general  culture  than  the  man,  be- 
cause she  takes  these  studies  more  in  the  true  spirit  of 
culture,  and  not  as  a  means  of  entering  as  rapidly  as 
possible  into  the  struggle  for  a  living.  And  it  is  women 
like  Miss  Carey  Thomas,1  president  of  Bryn  Mawr  Col- 
lege, who,  in  the  evolution  of  the  college,  prove  the 
staunchest  defenders  of  its  classical  tradition,  sapped 
by  modern  necessities. 

1  See  notably  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Universal  Exposition,  St. 
Louis,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  133  ff. 

78 


80     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  a  general  way,  the  American  woman,  at  the  pres- 
ent hour,  is  much  more  emancipated  from  the  mascu- 
line tutelage  than  the  European  woman,  and  that  is 
evidently  related  to  her  education.  She  lives  much 
more  without  help.  The  conditions  of  material  life  and 
of  marriage  have  driven  her,  more  than  in  Europe,  to 
make  sure  of  her  own  existence.  She  is  found  in  a  num- 
ber of  professions  —  those  in  which  one  meets  her  in 
Europe  —  and  in  others  also,  where  among  us  her 
presence  is  at  least  exceptional.  And  we  are  astonished, 
on  returning  to  France,  that  in  our  offices,  in  our  libra- 
ries, our  secretaryships  to  the  faculties,  our  secondary 
teaching  and  in  our  administrations  in  general,  she  has 
not  a  much  larger  place.  But  the  war  is  going  to  cause 
us  to  take  a  gigantic  step  in  this  direction.  Men  will 
have  to  be  reserved  for  jobs  where  their  strength  rend- 
ers them  indispensable.  The  too  numerous  women  will 
supply  their  places  where  men  are  not  necessary. 

In  America,  woman  already  has  a  large  place  as  a 
citizen.  She  has  all  the  political  rights  in  most  of  the 
western  states,  and  even  in  the  Middle  West;  and  they 
told  me  in  California  that,  the  experiment  having  been 
made,  those  who  had  been  her  adversaries  on  this 
ground,  would  make  much  less  opposition  for  her  today. 
The  electoral  influence  of  women  has  been  beneficent, 
especially  in  municipal  questions,  where  they  have  car- 
ried on  a  severe  struggle  against  graft.  In  1916,  for  the 
first  time,  a  woman  was  elected  to  Congress  at  Wash- 
ington by  the  state  of  Montana.  She  did  not  master 
her  nerves  there,  it  is  true,  as  one  could  see  at  the  time 
of  the  vote  for  the  war. 

To  limit  ourselves  here  to  the  universities  and  col- 
leges, the  first  fact  to  set  down  is  that  of  coeducation. 


UNIVERSITIES  81 

All  the  universities  of  the  West  practice  it,  and  the 
women  in  the  college  are  often  as  numerous  1  as  the 
men.  The  prevalence  of  coeducation  is  explained  by 
historical  reasons.  During  the  period  of  peopling  the 
West,  the  lack  of  teachers,  the  small  density  of  popula- 
tion, the  great  distances,  imposed  this  organization, 
which  is,  besides,  much  more  economical.  It  was  quite 
naturally  extended  to  higher  education,  when  the  uni- 
versities and  colleges  were  created  in  these  regions. 
The  oldest  coeducational  college  is  Oberlin  College,  in 
Ohio,  which  has  used  this  system  since  its  foundation 
in  1833. 

In  all  of  the  569  colleges  and  universities  in  the  Re- 
port of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  1913-14, 
333,  or  more  than  half,  are  coeducational.  The  236 
others  comprise  61  Catholic  institutions,  55  for  men  and 
6  for  women;  and  165  non-Catholic,  89  for  men  and 
86  for  women:  of  these  latter  only  36  are  indicated  as 
non-sectarian. 

In  the  East,  the  Puritan  tradition  has  evidently  been 
opposed  to  coeducation.  Yet  many  large  institutions 
there  are  mixed.  Such  is  the  case  at  Cornell  University 
(3,731  men,  463  women  in  1913-14  in  the  college),  at 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  (2,226  men,  613  women), 
at  New  York  University  (3,019  men,  362  women),  at 
Boston  University  (544  men,  613  women),  and  at 
Brown  University  at  Providence  (678  men,  203  wo- 
men), and  at  very  many  other  institutions  (Tufts  Col- 
lege, University  of  Rochester,  Syracuse,  Maine,  etc.). 

Men  Women 

University  of  California    2,901  1,782 

"            Minnesota 1,644  1,165 

Wisconsin 2,865  1,124 

Chicago 2,020  3,426 

Northwestern  University  573  636 


82     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


Many  large  and  old  eastern  universities  have  re- 
mained for  men  only,  like  Harvard,  Yale,  Columbia, 
Princeton,  as  well  as  Johns  Hopkins,  at  least  in  the 
college,  for  Harvard  and  Columbia  admit  women  grad- 
uate students.1 

On  the  other  hand,  affiliated  women's  colleges, 
(Radcliffe,  Barnard),  have  been  organized  near  Har- 
vard, Columbia,  and  Johns  Hopkins,  having  the  same 
teaching  staff  as  these  universities.  This  situation  is  not 
very  far  from  coeducation,  and  in  fact  Harvard  and 
Radcliffe  students  organized  certain  things  in  common, 
as  for  example  the  47  Workshop  which  was  considered 
above. 

Among  the  92  existing  women's  colleges,  the  best 
known  are  the  following: 


Name 

Location 

Founded 

No.  of 

Students 

Volumes 
in 
Library 

Endowment 

Bryn  Mawr 

Bryn  Mawr,  Pa. 

1885 

467 

75,000 

$1,885,000 

Smith 

Northampton,  Mass. 

1875 

1,549 

52,000 

1,790,000 

Wellesley 

Wellesley,  Mass. 

1873 

1,480 

80,000 

2,056,000 

Mt.  Holyoke 

So.  Hadley,  Mass. 

1837 

772 

1,425,000 

Vassar 

Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 

1865 

1,077 

85,000 

1,520,000 

Radcliffe 

Cambridge,  Mass. 

1879 

582 

32,000 

1,025,000 

Barnard 

New  York  City 

1889 

684 

8,000 

1,420,000 

Hunter 

New  York  City 

1870 

2,156 

19,000 

Municipal 

Bryn  Mawr  is  not  only  a  college,  but  also  has  gradu- 
ate students  doing  original  research,  and  has  furnished 
49  doctorates,  between  1898  and  1913.  This  college  has 
numbered  among  its  professors,  at  least  in  biology, 

1  Harvard  does  not  admit  women  to  its  Medical  School,  contrary  to  Johns 
Hopkins.  Columbia  is  an  institution  for  men,  but  Teachers'  College  which 
merged  with  it,  is  coeducational  (372  men,  1,431  women  in  1913-14). 


UNIVERSITIES  83 

many  of  the  most  notable  scientists  of  today:  E.  B. 
Wilson,  T.  H.  Morgan,  J.  Loeb,  etc.  The  other  colleges 
have  scarcely  more  than  undergraduates. 

The  teaching  in  these  colleges  is  moulded  after  that 
of  the  men's  universities.  Their  studies  last  four  years 
and  end  in  a  similar  graduation. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  studies,  the  American  girl 
has  the  reputation  of  being  more  industrious  than  the 
average  boy.  She  is  much  less  absorbed  by  athletics 
and  other  pleasures.  In  the  coeducational  universities 
she  has  in  consequence,  very  fine  scholastic  success, 
which  does  not  altogether  fail  to  excite  masculine  jeal- 
ousy. It  even  happens,  it  seems,  that  the  success  and 
too  large  numbers  of  girls  turn  men  away  from  certain 
subjects,  especially  in  the  literary  departments. 

But  studies  do  not  quite  suffice  to  give  a  picture  of 
college  life  for  women.  In  the  exclusively  women's 
colleges  this  life  naturally  has  the  most  character.1  I 
had  a  chance  to  visit  only  Wellesley  College,  near 
Boston.  Its  equipment  is  magnificent.  The  college  is 
an  immense  park,  of  more  than  400  acres,  in  a  charming 
site,  with  a  beautiful  lake  bordered  by  wooded  hills. 
Over  this  great  domain  the  college  buildings  are  scat- 
tered laboratories,  an  observatory,  a  chapel,  a  building 
for  the  fine  arts,  another  for  music,  professors'  houses, 
and  beautiful  buildings  where  the  young  women  live. 
The  main  building,  which  has  just  been  rebuilt  after  a 
fire,  is  truly  sumptuous.  We  have  no  idea  in  France  of 
establishments  of  such  luxuriousness.  If  we  add  that, 
in  these  colleges,  the  young  women  enjoy  a  very  large 
liberty,  that  they  have  organized  a  common  life  anal- 

1  In  the  mixed  universities  the  young  women  of  course  have  their  special 
dormitories  or  residential  colleges. 


84     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ogous  to  that  of  the  men,  sometimes  with  clubs  and 
sororities  (parallel  to  the  fraternities),  one  conceives 
without  difficulty  that  the  years  in  college  are  for  them 
also  a  "good  time,"  and  that  they  have  no  apprehen- 
sions in  devoting  to  it  four  years  of  their  youth. 

But  we  must  ask  also  what  are  the  results  from  the 
social  point  of  view.  A  not  negligible  proportion  of 
the  young  women  who  study  in  the  colleges  are  des- 
tined for  teaching.  This  proportion  is  even  strong  in 
some  colleges,  as  at  Bryn  Mawr.  But  the  majority  of 
the  77,000  women  students  are  scattered  among  vari- 
ous careers,  or  simply  wait  for  marriage.  Passing 
through  college  has  largely  emancipated  the  American 
woman.  She  is  cultivated;  she  has  a  free  mind;  she 
interests  herself  willingly  in  very  varied  things;  in 
particular  in  problems  of  public  usefulness,  often  in  a 
somewhat  fearsome  manner.  Yet  one  cannot  help 
thinking  that  the  life  which  they  have  led,1  during  the 
period  of  their  studies,  has  tended  to  develop  in  them 
luxurious  tastes  which  in  many  cases  oppose  a  serious 
obstacle  to  family  life. 

Besides,  that  is  a  question  for  all  American  society, 
and  especially  that  of  the  East,  to  solve.  The  birth- 
rate there  is  very  small,  much  less  than  in  France,  on 
which  subject  the  Americans  are  often  alarmed,  with- 
out always  taking  account  that  their  case  is  much  worse, 
but  that  immigration  has  up  till  now  furnished  them 
wherewith  to  fill  the  vacancies.  In  Massachusetts  from 
1877  to  1891,  the  recent  immigrants  have  furnished  an 
excess  of  births  over  deaths  equal  to  526,987  individ- 

1  The  minimum  expenses  of  a  Wellesley  student  are  about  equivalent  to 
those  of  a  Harvard  student. 


UNIVERSITIES 


85 


uals,  while  the  native  population  showed,  during  the 
same  period,  an  excess  of  deaths  over  births  equal  to 
269,918.  The  American  population  of  ancient  source, 
depositary  of  English  civilization  and  Puritan  tradition, 
is  thus  threatened  with  rapid  disappearance.  This 
sterility  is  evidently  voluntary,  at  least  in  general,  and 
the  general  comfort  of  living  and  the  economic  exigen- 
cies which  that  entails,  are  one  of  the  principal  causes. 
These  causes  apply  to  very  varied  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation. But  the  statistics  show  that  the  problem  is  very 
grave,  as  it  concerns  the  colleges.  Students  of  popula- 
tion and  educators  are  keenly  disturbed  over  it.  Col- 
lege education  tends  to  aggravate  the  evil  rather  than 
to  remedy  it. 

Mr.  R.  S.  Sprague,1  professor  of  social  economics  at 
the  Massachusetts  College  of  Agriculture  at  Amherst, 
from  whom  I  have  borrowed  the  figures  below,  de- 
nounces at  once  the  high  school  and  the  college.  "The 


Date  of 
Graduation 

Per  cent 
Unmarried 
in  1916 

Per  cent 
Married 

Average 
Number  of 
Children 
per  Married 
Graduate 

Average 
Number  of 
Children  for 
the  Total 
Number  of 
Graduates 

1842-49  
1850-59  

14.6 
24.5 

85.4 
75.5 

2.77 
3.38 

2.37 
2.55 

1860-69 

39.1 

60.9 

2.64 

1.60 

1870-79  

40.6 

59.4 

2.75 

1.63 

1880-89             .    . 

42.4 

57.6 

2.54 

1.46 

1390-92  2 

50.0 

50.0 

1.91 

0.95 

1  Journal  of  Heredity,  Vol.  VI,  1915,  p.  159. 

2  The  statistics  are  ended  at  1892,  in  order  to  take  in  only  women  whose 
period  of  maternity  may  be  considered  as  ended. 


86     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

high  schools,"  he  says,  "have  turned  their  backs  on  the 
family.  They  prepared  our  children  for  the  college,  for 
the  parlor,  club,  and  travel,  but  did  not  recognize  the 
demands  of  the  workshop,  kitchen,  and  nursery  where 
the  greater  part  of  the  average  parent's  time  and 
energy  must  be  spent."  "College  education,"  he  says 
again,  "gives  independent  women,  but  women  whose 
individual  superiority  is  acquired  at  the  expense  of  the 
race.  The  statistics  relative  to  the  number  of  children 
of  former  students  of  the  women's  colleges  are  very 
lamentable.  For  example,  there  are  those  of  Mount 
Holyoke  College,  which  is  the  oldest. 

Vassar  College  furnishes,  between  1867  and  1892,  959 
graduates,  of  whom  509  have  married,  or  53  per  cent, 
and  have  had  973  children,  or  about  1  per  graduate. 
Of  these  959  women,  451,  or  45  per  cent,  have  taught; 
among  the  latter  166  have  married,  and  have  had  287 
children,  or  1.73  per  capita;  moreover,  343  graduates, 
who  have  not  taught  and  who  have  married,  had  686 
children,  or  2  on  the  average. 

Bryn  Mawr,  which  is  more  recent,  being  founded  in 
1885,  cannot  furnish  comparable  statistics  for  the 
classes  1888  to  1900,  165  graduates,  45  per  cent,  were 
married  on  the  first  of  January,  1913,  and  had  had  138 
children,  or  0.84  per  married  graduate,  and  0.37  per 
capita,  of  the  total  of  graduates.  These  figures  may  yet 
be  improved,  but  are  deplorably  small. 

Wellesley,  for  its  classes  from  1879  to  1888,  furnishes 
55  per  cent  of  marriages  among  its  graduates  and  60 
per  cent  of  the  total  of  its  students,  whether  graduates 
or  not.  These  marriages  have  furnished  an  average  of 
0.86  children  per  graduate  and  0.97  for  the  total  of  the 
classes  (1.56  per  married  graduate,  and  1.62  for  the 


UNIVERSITIES  87 

total  of  students  married).  The  statistics  for  the  honor- 
girls  give  still  smaller  figures.1 

The  principle  of  women's  colleges  has  sometimes  been 
given  as  a  cause,  and  the  preceding  low  figures  attrib- 
uted, at  least  in  part,  to  a  mentality  which  the  absence 
of  coeducation  would  develop.  That  would  plead  for 
the  general  adoption  of  the  latter,  which,  besides,  is 
more  economical.  But  some  statistics  quite  recently 
published,2  give  for  the  women  coming  from  Syracuse 
University,3  figures  absolutely  agreeing  with  those  for 
Wellesley  College. 

Wellesley        Syracuse 
Average  number  of  children  for  the  total  number 

of  graduates 0.86  0.88 

Average  number    of    children  for  each    married 

graduate 1.56  1.60 

Therefore  coeducation  or  its  absence  does  not  seem 
to  be  an  important  factor  in  the  question.  Accordingly, 
one  can  hardly  refuse  to  admit  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  American  woman  and  her  taste  for  culture, 

1  The  Journal  of  Heredity,  from  which  these  statistics  are  taken,  has 
calculated  for  thirty  years,  1861-90,  the  average  fecundity  of  graduates 
of  Yale  and  Harvard.    The  percentage  of  marriages  oscillates  between  75 
and  80  per  cent,  even  for  recent  years.   The  average  number  of  children  per 
family  has  gone  down  from  2.24  for  the  first  decade  to  1.87  for  the  last.  The 
average  number  of  children,  calculated  on  the  total  of  the  graduates,  is  1.54. 

2  Journal  of  Heredity,  May,  1917,  H.  J.  Backer,  Coeducation  and  Eu- 
genics. 

3  By  comparing  statistics  of  men  and  women  students  of  Syracuse  Uni- 
versity, conditions  of  the  environment  being  similar,  we  find: 

Men  Women 

Per  cent  of  married  graduates 81.0  57.0 

Average  age  of  marriage 28.8  27.7 

Per  cent  of  marriages  between  students  of  the  university 3.46  2.06 

Per  cent  of  sterile  marriages   20.0  28.0 

Per  cent  of  marriages  with  two  children   45.0  42.0 

Average  number  of  children  to  each  family 2.06  1.46 

Average  number  of  children  to  each  graduate .  1.66  0.83 


88     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

but  she  has  been  led  into  a  very  strong  individualism 
and  turned  away  from  the  prosaic  realities  of  life.  The 
general  wealth  and  perfection  of  material  life  have 
also  had  in  their  own  way  a  considerable  effect.  Mr. 
Sprague  says  energetically,  but  with  reason,  "Women 
are  the  capital  of  the  race.  The  farmer  who  employs 
his  land  as  a  golf  course  or  a  hunting  preserve,  instead 
of  cultivating  it,  is  surely  going  to  ruin.  Likewise  a 
civilization  which  employs  its  women  as  stenographers, 
clerks  and  professors,  instead  of  making  mothers  of 
them,  is  running  to  the  ruin  of  the  race." 

In  what  specially  concerns  the  marriage  of  women 
college  graduates,  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  seems 
to  work  against  them.1  "They  are  not  prepared  psy- 
chologically or  technically  for  the  occupations  of  family 
life,  and  seek  these  only  under  special  conditions,  which 
drive  many  men  away  from  them."  2 

The  movement  which  leads  women  toward  a  high 
intellectual  culture  is  not  evil  in  itself,  but  it  ought  to 
have  important  correctives,  in  the  teaching  given,  so 
as  to  restore  to  its  true  place,  which  should  be  the  first, 
the  role  of  woman  as  wife  and  mother.3  Superior  in- 

1  Mr.  McK.  Cattell  gives  the  following  statistics:    American  men  of 
science  who  have  married  women  graduates  have  had  on  the  average  2.02 
children;   those  who  have  married  women  who  have  gone  to  college,  but 
not  graduates,  have  had  2.12,  and  those  whose  wives  have  not  been  to  col- 
lege have  had  2.32.   Many  intelligent  men  prefer  young  women  whose  edu- 
cation has  turned  them  toward  the  realities  of  life;  and  that  is  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  the  lowering  of  the  percentage  of  marriages  among  women 
college  graduates. 

2  Sprague,  loc.  ciL 

3  According  to  R.  K.  Johnson  and  R.  Stutzman,  Journal  of  Heredity, 
1915,  the  women's  colleges  offer  an  obstinate  resistance  to  introducing 
into  their  programs   domestic  education,  and  especially  anything  which 
concerns  the  care  to  be  given  to  childhood. 


UNIVERSITIES  89 

dividuals  only  —  and  they  are  naturally  very  rare  - 
can  pretend  that  they  are  exempt  from  this  law,  and 
the  highest  virtue  of  a  woman,  even  an  educated  one, 
is  still  to  make  sure  the  future  of  the  race.  That  is  what 
Napoleon  I  curtly  replied  to  a  question  by  Mme.  de 
Stael,  in  the  name  of  good  sense,  which  never  loses  its 
rights. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES 

Relations  with  the  college.  Development.  Degrees.  Master  of  Arts.  Doctor 
of  Philosophy.   The  doctorate  in  the  principal  universities. 

HPHE  Graduate  School  of  Arts  and  Sciences  is,  as  we 
-••  have  seen  in  Chapter  II,  a  sort  of  prolongation, 
which  has  been  grafted  upon  the  college,  and  which  is 
the  true  equivalent  of  our  Faculties  of  Letters  and  of 
Sciences.1 

In  general  it  has  not  a  very  well-marked  physical 
individuality.  Its  staff,  that  is  to  say  its  faculty,  is 
composed  of  the  same  men  as  that  of  the  college.  It 
has  only  an  administrative  individuality,  indicated  by 
a  special  dean,  who  manages  its  business.  Its  depart- 
ments are  those  of  the  college,  and  as  we  have  seen,  are 
not  absolutely  distinct,  at  least  at  Harvard,  and  at 
many  universities.  Certain  courses  are  for  graduates 
and  undergraduates,  and  others  primarily  for  graduates. 
In  certain  universities,  however,  the  distinction  is  better 
marked.  That  is  the  case  at  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  especially  at  Johns  Hopkins,  which  is  prop- 
erly speaking  exclusively  a  graduate  school,  the  college 
which  is  its  satellite  being  quite  distinct.  At  Bryn  Mawr 
the  arrangements  are  parallel  to  those  at  Johns  Hopkins. 

1  The  two  groups  of  studies  are  in  general  united,  as  the  term  Arts  and 
Sciences  moreover  indicates.  Sometimes,  however,  there  are  two  distinct 
organizations.  That  is  the  case  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  which  has  a 
Graduate  School  of  Arts  and  Literature,  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Ogden  School  of  Sciences. 

90 


UNIVERSITIES  91 

Clark  University  at  Worcester  is  also  a  pure  graduate 
school,  which  now  has  a  college  connected  with  it. 

By  virtue  of  this  organization,  the  graduate  school  is 
not  in  general  of  a  radically  different  character  from 
that  of  the  college.  The  courses  primarily  for  graduates 
are  only  more  specialized  and  presuppose  previously 
acquired  knowledge.  Each  department  has  a  smaller 
or  larger  number  of  them,  and  the  flexibility  of  the 
organization  in  departments  permits  them  easily  to 
arrange  new  courses  on  the  parts  of  science  which  have 
just  developed.  We  can  give  a  clear  example  of  it  for 
biology.  Since  1900  a  special  branch  of  this  science  has 
been  constituted,  which  has  its  origin  in  the  already 
ancient  works  of  Charles  Naudin  and  Gregor  Mendel, 
the  experimental  study  of  heredity,  by  way  of  crossing 
neighboring  varieties.  This  study,  whose  centre  is 
heredity,  called  Mendelism,  has  formed  the  object  of 
numerous  researches  in  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  con- 
stitutes today  what  is  called  genetics.  Genetics  is 
abundantly  taught  in  the  large  American  universities, 
at  once  in  an  elementary  form  for  undergraduates,  and 
in  a  more  advanced  way  for  graduates.  At  Harvard 
this  instruction  is  given,  on  the  zoological  side,  by  Pro- 
fessor W.  E.  Castle,  on  the  botanical  side  by  Professor 
E.  M.  East.  It  is  likewise  represented  in  all  the  great 
universities.  These  last  years,  genetics  was  taught  in 
51  important  establishments,  representing  3000  audi- 
tors of  these  courses;  in  15  of  them  there  were  140 
graduates  engaged  on  original  researches  in  this  domain. 

While  finishing  their  instruction  in  the  various  parts 
of  a  science  or  group  of  sciences,  the  graduate  students 
are  under  the  more  special  direction  of  a  professor,  who 
guides  them  in  their  researches,  and  the  graduate  school 


92     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

is  before  all,  the  collection  of  laboratories  and  seminars 
corresponding  to  the  various  sciences.  It  is  therefore 
above  all  a  particular  aspect  of  the  general  activity  of 
the  college  professors. 

It  is  a  recent  differentiation,  which  goes  back  scarcely 
over  fifty  years,  even  in  the  universities  in  which  it  is 
the  oldest.  The  first  trace  of  organization  of  studies  for 
graduates  at  Yale  is  proven  to  be  in  1847,  and  the 
graduate  school  was  definitely  established  there  in 
1872.  At  Harvard  from  1860  there  were  graduates 
about  Louis  Agassiz.  The  doctorate  was  instituted 
there  in  1872.  There  were  28  graduates  in  1872,  111  in 
1889-90.1  There  are  at  present  500  of  them. 

The  graduate  school  is  well  represented  in  only  a 
small  number  of  universities,  and  one  may  take  for  one 
of  his  criteria,  the  number  of  the  students  who  are  en- 
rolled in  them  (in  1913-14).  I  have  set  forth  the  total 
number  of  the  students  of  the  university,  so  that  one 
can  get  an  idea  of  the  relative  importance  of  the  gradu- 
ate school  in  the  whole.  These  figures,  however,  give 
the  total  of  graduate  students,  and  for  certain  univer- 
sities, such  as  Harvard  and  Chicago,  they  include  organ- 
izations distinct  from  the  Graduate  School  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  (for  example,  at  Harvard,  the  Graduate  School 
of  Business  Administration,  or  advanced  school  of  com- 
mercial studies).  (See  table  on  opposite  page.)  We 
find,  besides,  25  institutions  which  show,  from  their 
statistics,  graduate  students  varying  in  number  from 
200  to  80.  Moreover,  in  1913-14,  the  total  of  graduates 
given  in  the  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education, 
was  12,871,  of  whom  8656  were  men  and  4215  women. 

1  E.  D.  P«rry,  Monograph  on  Education  in  the  United  States,  Vol.  II,  p.  6, 
Exposition,  Paris,  1900. 


UNIVERSITIES 


93 


They   represent,    therefore,    numerically   almost   one- 
twentieth  of  the  total  number  of  American  students. 


Universities 

Total  No. 
Students 

Total  of 
Graduate 
Students 

Men 

Women 

Chicago             

7765 

1799 

1081 

718 

Columbia 

5112 

1568 

942 

626 

Columbia  Teachers'  College.  .  .  . 
Harvard       .  . 

1803 
4912 

681 
795 

362 
713 

319 

82 

California  

6028 

707 

404 

303 

Wisconsin.  .                  ... 

4719 

480 

343 

167 

Cornell 

5015 

383 

327 

56 

Pennsylvania  

4686 

337 

308 

129 

Michigan 

5520 

298 

230 

68 

Illinois  

5094 

285 

242 

43 

Yale  

3189 

258 

202 

56 

Johns  Hopkins  

852 

229 

189 

40 

Princeton 

1600 

176 

176 

Leland  Stanford  Jr  
Minnesota 

1906 
4958 

224 
166 

168 
117 

56 
49 

The  work  of  the  graduates  is  rewarded  by  two  de- 
grees, that  of  Master  and  that  of  Doctor. 

The  title  Master  of  Arts,  M.A.,  or  Master  of  Science, 
M.Sc.,  can  be  obtained  by  one  year's  residence  at  the 
University,  after  graduation,  during  which  the  candi- 
date works  on  a  program  traced  out  in  advance  and 
approved,  at  the  time  of  enrolling,  subject  to  certain 
rules  as  to  extent  and  variety.  The  rules  vary  from  one 
university  to  another.  There  is  not  always  an  examina- 
tion. At  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  candidate  must 
write  a  little  dissertation,  which  is  deposited  in  the 
archives.  At  Cornell  University,  they  require  both  an 
examination  and  a  small  original  work.  To  sum  it  up, 
the  studies  for  the  degree  of  master  require  a  certain 


94     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

specialization,  with  apprenticeship  in  original  work. 
We  can  consider  that  a  master  from  a  good  university 
corresponds  approximately  to  one  of  our  licences  es 
sciences,  holding  a  diploma  for  advanced  studies.  In 
1913-14,  about  4700  Master's  degrees  were  conferred. 

The  Doctor's  degree,  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  Ph.D.,  or 
Doctor  of  Science,  Sc.D.,  is  generally  acquired  by  three 
years  of  studies  as  a  graduate,  the  year  for  the  Master's 
degree  being  included  in  these  three  years.  The  can- 
didate submits  a  subject  for  study  to  a  committee,  and 
must  write  an  original  thesis.  The  trials  are  composed 
specially  of  an  examination  on  two  accessory  or  minor 
subjects,  and  on  one  principal  or  major  subject.  The 
thesis  is  generally  printed,  though  this  is  not  absolutely 
obligatory.  The  doctorate  has  been  more  or  less  mod- 
eled after  the  German  doctorate;  but  here  it  is  not  the 
normal  termination  of  the  studies  of  all  the  students. 
It  is  rarely  won  with  less  than  seven  years'  residence  at 
the  university,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  or  twenty- 
eight.  It  seems  to  me  to  represent,  on  the  whole,  an 
effort  rather  comparable  to  that  which  our  doctorate 
in  law  exacts,  the  value  of  the  comparison  depending  on 
the  measure  in  which  the  two  kinds  of  studies  can  be 
compared. 

This  comparison  with  our  doctorate  is,  moreover,  an 
important  and  present  one.  One  of  the  reasons  —  it  is 
not  the  only  one  —  why  the  Americans  have  flocked 
to  the  German  universities  so  much,  is  that  they  can 
there  become  a  Doctor  Philosophiae,  and  bring  back  this 
degree  to  America  as  a  certificate  for  their  work. 

No  barrier,  like  our  licentiate,  drives  them  away.  It 
often  happened  that  they  even  passed  off  in  Germany 
theses  written  in  America. 


UNIVERSITIES 


95 


Today,  when  the  war  is  bringing  forth  a  great  current 
of  sympathy  from  America  toward  France,  the  Ameri- 
cans would  like  us  to  accord  them  the  same  facility. 
Our  state  doctorate  is  practically  inaccessible,  and 
foreigners  understand  imperfectly  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  two  doctorates,  one  state,  the  other  univer- 
sity. In  my  opinion,  there  would  be  ground,  while 
maintaining  the  state  doctorate  as  it  is,  for  our  nation- 
als, to  suppress  the  antecedent  condition  of  the  licentiate 
for  foreigners,  and  to  accept  what  would  be  the  equiva- 
lent American  degree.1 


University 

Number  of 
Doctorates 
in  1914-15 

In  Science 

Annual 

Average, 
1898-1907 

Total 
Number 
1898-1915 

In  Sciences 

Columbia  

70 

27 

32.2 

835 

329 

Chicago  

79 

53 

35.6 

780 

414 

Harvard  

58 

33 

33.8 

709 

296 

Yale 

36 

20 

31.8 

590 

267 

Johns  Hopkins  
Pennsylvania  
Cornell  

31 
34 
31 

23 
11 
26 

30.5 
22.5 
18.1 

536 
458 

452 

324 
177 
317 

Wisconsin  
Clark  
Michigan  

21 
12 

26 

8 
10 
15 

8.6 
8.7 
6.9 

258 
180 
158 

108 
162 
76 

Illinois  

23 

17 

5.0 

122 

81 

California  
Princeton  

22 
12 

16 
4 

3.3 

2.6 

120 
111 

89 
49 

Stanford.  ... 

5 

2 

1.4 

47 

32 

1  One  of  our  American  colleagues,  who  was  a  student  in  the  £cole  Normale 
Suptrieure,  a  little  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  and  who  has  kept  a  very 
good  memory  of  it,  quite  recently  wrote  me  these  lines,  which  it  seems  to  me 
interesting  to  quote  here:  "In  particular  it  would  be  very  desirable  that  a 
committee  in  France  should  examine  the  catalogues  (of  the  principal  Ameri- 
can Universities)  and  should  learn  the  conditions  exacted  for  the  doctorate 
in  America,  so  that  the  Sorbonne  might  offer  to  American  students  a  doctorate 


96    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

These  are  the  figures  relating  to  the  universities 
which  are  most  important  for  the  sciences.1 

The  statistics  show  that  about  fifty  universities  or 
colleges  give  the  Doctor's  degree,  thirty  or  thirty-five  of 
them  in  a  regular  manner.2  In  1914-15,  556  doctorates 
were  granted,  which  is  a  number  double  the  average  of 
the  decade  1898-1907.  If  we  wish  to  consider  the 
sciences  separately,  there  are  other  tables.3 

Of  course  we  must  not  exaggerate  the  value  of  figures 
in  matters  such  as  that  which  occupies  us.  The  value 
of  scientific  work  is  more  important  than  their  number. 
The  number  of  doctorates  given  is  one  of  the  tangible 
elements  on  which  the  universities  count  for  establish- 
ing their  reputation  with  the  public;  driven  by  the 
spirit  of  mutual  rivalry,  they  may  tend  to  pad  this  num- 
ber by  an  excessive  indulgence. 

having  about  the  same  degree  of  difficulty  as  our  own.  I  think  that  the  Doctoral 
d'UniversiU  answers  this  requirement.  But  unhappily  very  few  Americans 
go  to  the  Sorbonne.  As  a  former  student  of  the  ficole  Normale,  I  wish  this 
school  could  establish  a  section  for  foreigners.  Besides,  I  think  it  would  be 
very  desirable  to  organize  a  centre  of  information  for  our  students.  The 
chief  difficulty  in  coming  to  study  in  France  is  that  at  the  Sorbonne  there  is  no 
suitable  machinery  to  attend  to  the  American  students,  or  in  any  case,  if  this 
machinery  exists,  it  is  unknown  in  America.  Our  students  feel  more  or  less 
abandoned  when  they  come  to  Paris.  If  they  go  to  Gottingen  or  to  Berlin,  things 
are  organized  in  such  a  way  that  they  easily  find  their  place  in  the  institution  and 
get  what  they  want." 

The  same  requirements  are  expressed  identically  in  other  letters  which 
have  been  sent  to  me. 

1  New  York  University,  Boston  University,  and  Bryn  Mawr,  furnish  a 
very  considerable  number  of  doctors,  for  the  whole  of  the  period,  but  have 
only  a  very  small  importance  as  regards  the  sciences. 

2  At  Cornell  in  1910,  there  were  the  following  numbers  of  candidates  for 
the  doctorate:    53  chemists,  £7  botanists,  £4  physicists,  19  zoologists,  £0 
geologists. 

3  The  tables  are  given  in  Science,  October  ££,  1915,  pp.  555  ff. 


UNIVERSITIES 


97 


But  the  figures  become  more  significant  when  com- 
pared with  a  past  of  twenty  years.   We  see  how  rapid 


Average 
1898-1907 

1914-15 

Total 
1898-1915 

Chemistry 

323 

85 

838 

Physics  

15.5 

31 

366 

Zoology 

15  2 

32 

348 

Botany  

12.6 

40 

315 

Psychology  

13.5 

22 

309 

Mathematics 

121 

23 

297 

Biology  . 

7.1 

26 

190 

Physiology 

4.1 

8 

97 

Agriculture  

1.0 

9 

71 

Astronomy 

3.4 

7 

71 

Bacteriology           

1.4 

4 

44 

Anthropology 

1.0 

6 

33 

Anatomy  

0.9 

5 

27 

Paleontology 

1.6 

2 

25 

Engineering  .  .        

0.8 

2 

19 

Pathology  

0.5 

2 

19 

Mineralogy                .               

0.6 

1 

11 

Geography 

0.1 

3 

8 

Metallurgy.  .                

0.3 

1 

6 

Meteorology 

0.1 

o 

1 

is  the  development  of  the  universities,  and  how  it  is 
made  in  all  directions.  In  particular,  the  state  universi- 
ties are  rising  from  the  utilitarian  level  on  which  they 
began,  and  tend  to  take  an  honorable  place  beside  the 
great  private  universities  of  the  East. 

The  students  who  are  preparing  for  the  doctorate  are, 
in  a  large  majority,  future  college  or  university  profes- 
sors. That  comes  out  with  extreme  clearness  in  the 
catalogue  of  Harvard  theses  from  1873  to  1916.  Almost 
all  of  these  doctors  are  now  teaching  or  have  taught  in 
universities  or  colleges,  or  are  connected  with  museums 


98     UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

or  with  governmental  scientific  services.  Only  those 
young  men  who  wish  a  scientific  or  pedagogical  career 
push  on  to  the  doctorate. 

The  social  construction  of  the  graduate  school  is 
therefore  quite  different  from  that  of  the  college,  as  is 
naturally  to  be  expected,  and  the  material  importance 
of  the  role  which  the  college  has  in  the  life  of  the  univer- 
sity is  understood. 

We  will  return  to  the  conditions  of  scientific  research 
at  the  opening  of  the  second  part. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS 

First  group:  Theology,  Law,  Medicine,  Dentistry,  Pharmacy.  Second  group: 
Schools  of  Pedagogy,  Teacher's  College  at  Columbia,  the  School  of  Education 
at  Chicago.  Schools  of  Fine  Arts.  Architecture.  Schools  of  Journalism. 

THE  parts  of  the  university  which  are  still  to  be  con- 
sidered are  called  by  the  Americans  professional 
schools,  because  the  teaching  in  them  is  preparatory  to 
a  definite  career.  I  will  touch  but  lightly  upon  those 
which  correspond  to  our  Faculties  of  Law  and  of  Medi- 
cine, because  I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  a  sufficient  au- 
thority, and  because  they  are  less  interesting  to  us  than 
the  others.  A  large  number  of  professional  schools  have 
been  created  in  an  independent  way,  and  at  their 
origin  were  conceived  with  a  strictly  utilitarian  end,  in 
order  to  train  professional  men  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
Gradually,  they  are  merging  into  the  universities. 

For  medicine  and  law  in  particular,  it  is  only  quite 
recently  and  under  the  impulsion  of  universities  like 
Harvard,  Johns  Hopkins  and  some  others,  that  they 
have  endeavored  to  get  students  having  considerable 
preliminary  knowledge,  by  requiring  a  period  of  study 
in  college  before  entrance  to  these  schools. 

FIRST  GROUP.  SCHOOLS  OF  THEOLOGY,  LAW,  MEDICINE, 
AND  THE  ASSOCIATED  PROFESSIONS 

First  the  statistics  which  show  the  number  of  schools 
of  these  various  specialties,  as  well  as  the  size  and 


100    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

quality  of  their  faculties  and  of  their  student  bodies  in 
1913-14.1 


Faculties 

Number 
of  Insti- 
tutions 

Number 
of  Pro- 
fessors 

Total 
No.  of 
Students 

Graduates 

Per  Cent 
of 
Graduates 

Women 
Students 

Theology.  .  . 

176 

1516 

11  269 

417 

37 

580 

Law  

122 

1471 

20,958 

4215 

20.1 

522 

Medicine  

100 

6955 

16,920 

2468 

14.5 

835 

Pharmacy  
Dental  Schools 

72 
50 

744 
1532 

5,930 
9,315 

91 
199 

1.5 
2.1 

280 
185 

1.   Schools  of  Theology 

For  theology,  I  limit  myself  to  showing  the  figures 
above. 

The  state  universities  have  no  faculty  of  theology. 
As  for  the  private  universities,  one  might  distinguish 
their  faculties  of  theology  by  noting  whether  the  in- 
stitution is  a  church  school  or  undenominational. 

2.  Law  Schools 

The  course  of  studies  in  these  schools  is  generally 
three  years  and  leads  to  a  baccalaureate  (Bachelor  of 
Laws)  given,  following  examinations  passed  every  year. 
There  is  also  a  degree  of  doctor;  at  Harvard  it  is  obtained 
by  a  fourth  year  of  study  and  special  examinations. 

1  By  way  of  comparison,  the  statistics  for  1898. 


Faculties 

Number  of 
Institutions 

Number  of 
Professors 

Total 
Number  of 
Students 

Women 
Students 

Theology.                      

165 

1070 

8317 

198 

Law 

86 

970 

11  783 

147 

Medicine  . 

156 

5735 

24043 

1397 

Pharmacy. 

52 

412 

3525 

174 

Dental  Schools 

56 

1513 

7221 

162 

UNIVERSITIES 


101 


Harvard  is  the  only  university  which  requires  all  its 
law  students  to  be  previously  college  graduates.  The 
University  of  Chicago  requires  either  the  Bachelor's 
degree  or  three  years  of  effective  and  satisfactory  work 
in  a  college.  It  is  the  same  at  Columbia.  There,  how- 
ever, they  admit  a  less  precise  equivalent,  in  the  form 
of  a  certificate  of  satisfactory  previous  study  and  in- 
struction, in  an  advanced  American  or  foreign  institu- 
tion. 

Here  follow  some  figures  relating  to  1913-14,  which 
show  the  proportion  of  graduates  among  the  law  stu- 
dents in  various  universities. 

You  will  observe  that  none  of  the  large  universities 
has  a  very  numerous  school  of  law,  as  one  would  have 
expected. 


University 

Total  Law 
Students 

Number  of 
Graduates 

University 

Total  Law 
Students 

Number  of 
Graduates 

Harvard 

694 

691 

Stanford.  .  .  . 

158 

20 

Chicago  .... 

313 

255 

California.  .  .  . 

223 

99 

Columbia  
Cornell  
Pennsylvania  . 
Yale  . 

493 
293 
374 
133 

410 
12 
155 
103 

Wisconsin.  .  .  . 
Illinois  
Michigan  
Minnesota..  . 

220 
121 
612 
176 

50 
9 
79 
17 

Law  students,  at  least  at  Harvard,  are  known  to  be 
extremely  hard  working;  the  spirit  is  quite  different 
from  that  of  the  college.  I  am  not  competent  to  speak 
of  the  instruction.  From  what  I  have  been  told,  its 
character  is  less  doctrinal  than  practical. 

A  certain  number  of  schools,  of  which  some  are  very 
large  (that  of  Georgetown  University  at  Washington 
has  a  thousand  students),  have  only  evening  courses. 


102    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

3.  Schools  of  Medicine 

The  teaching  of  medicine  in  the  United  States,  until 
a  very  recent  period,  was  very  unsatisfactory,  as  Ameri- 
cans admit.  Physicians  lacked  general  scientific  educa- 
tion. "In  medicine  as  in  politics,"  writes  Professor 
Howell  of  Johns  Hopkins,  "a  country  finds,  on  the 
whole,  the  kind  of  services  which  the  majority  con- 
siders necessary,  and  progressive  men  have  much  diffi- 
culty in  leading  this  majority  to  change  its  ideas." 

The  first  schools  were  those  of  Philadelphia  (today, 
University  of  Pennsylvania),  and  of  King's  College 
(Columbia),  at  New  York,  which  go  back  to  the  eight- 
eenth century.  The  Harvard  Medical  School  was 
founded  in  1782. 

About  thirty  schools  were  organized  in  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  a  hundred  in  the  second 
half.  The  great  defect  of  these  schools  —  and  it  is  not 
entirely  overcome  today  —  was  in  not  exacting  any  pre- 
vious general  instruction  from  their  students.  Many 
schools  competed  in  reducing  the  difficulties  of  the 
studies.  The  very  great  liberty  granted  by  law  to  the 
medical  profession  in  the  absence  of  a  state  examina- 
tion, did  not  tend  to  remedy  these  defects  in  the  training 
of  the  physician.  On  the  other  hand,  numerous  extra- 
medical  systems,  real  sects,  pretending  to  cure,  have 
been  very  much  in  favor  with  the  public,  and  even  to- 
day, Christian  Science  has  a  great  influence  even  in  the 
most  cultivated  parts  of  the  United  States,  such  as 
Mass  achusetts . 

Of  the  156  schools  of  medicine  existing  in  1900, 
82  were  still  independent  of  universities.  These  156 
schools  are  today  reduced  to  100,  of  which  10  are  home- 


UNIVERSITIES  103 

opathic  and  4  eclectic.  In  certain  large  cities  there  are 
several  independent  medical  schools,  either  attached  to 
universities  or  autonomous.  Chicago  has  no  less  than 
7,  New  York  (with  Brooklyn)  6,  Philadelphia,  5,  Wash- 
ington, Baltimore,  Boston  and  St.  Louis,  3.  None  of 
these  schools  is  very  large.  The  largest  have  600  to 
700  students.  Many  have  only  a  hundred,  and  some 
are  rudimentary.  Oakland  College  of  Medicine,  near 
San  Francisco,  had,  in  1913-14,  16  students  and  44 
professors,  or  instructors.  Several  of  the  most  impor- 
tant universities  have  no  medical  school.  That  is  the 
case  with  Princeton.  Yale  has  only  about  50  students 
in  its  department  of  medicine,  which,  however,  num- 
bers 57  professors,  or  instructors.  At  the  University  of 
Chicago,  there  were  in  1915-16,  599  students  in  medi- 
cine (68  of  them  women),  but  the  university  itself  has 
no  real  faculty  of  medicine.  It  has  organized  only  the 
scientific  part  of  the  medical  course  (physics,  chemis- 
try, physiology,  anatomy,  pathology),  but  possesses  no 
clinical  instruction  or  hospitals.  It  has  made  an  agree- 
ment with  the  Rush  Medical  College,  which  is,  in  fact, 
its  school  of  medicine,  but  with  which  it  has  no  official 
connection.  The  scientific  courses  of  this  college  have 
been  transferred  to  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  the 
students  of  the  latter  take  their  strictly  medical  studies 
in  the  former. 

The  progress  realized  in  the  quality  of  medical 
studies  has  been  due  above  all  to  the  influence  of  Johns 
Hopkins  and  Harvard  Universities.  Johns  Hopkins 
admits  only  college  graduates  to  its  medical  school 
proper.  Cornell  and  Yale  require  three  years  of  college. 
Harvard  admits  graduates,  or  students  having  com- 
pleted at  least  two  years  in  college,  under  conditions 


104    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

satisfactory  from  the  scientific  point  of  view.  The  rule 
which  is  becoming  established  is  to  require  two  years 
of  college,  before  the  strictly  medical  studies,  which 
themselves  last  four  years.  Of  the  latter,  the  first  two 
are  of  a  more  scientific  order,  and  thus  form,  with  the 
two  years  of  college  a  whole  similar  to  the  classical 
Bachelor's  degree. 

The  following  figures  1  show  the  proportion  of  grad- 
uates among  the  medical  students  in  the  great  uni- 
versities. 


University 

Total 

College 
Graduates 

University 

Total 

College 
Graduates 

Johns  Hopkins  . 

360 

360 

California.  .  .  . 

124 

25 

Harvard  

308 

290 

Illinois  

351 

26 

Chicago  

462 

87 

Michigan  

288 

94 

Pennsylvania.  . 

284 

156 

Wisconsin.  .  .  . 

83 

11 

Columbia  

355 

252 

The  Harvard  Medical  School,  rebuilt  in  1907,  at 
Boston,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  principal  hospitals, 
is  magnificently  equipped.  The  medical  schools  of  the 
large  universities  established  in  the  country  or  in  small 
towns,  are  generally  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
university,  in  order  to  be  placed  in  a  large  city.  Thus 
the  schools  of  medicine  of  the  universities  of  Illinois 
(Urbana),  and  Northwestern  (Evanston),  are  in  Chi- 
cago, and  that  of  Cornell  University  (Ithaca),  is  in  New 
York  City. 

1  Women  are  still  excluded  from  many  medical  schools  (Harvard,  Colum- 
bia, Yale,  Pennsylvania).  They  are  admitted  to  that  of  Johns  Hopkins, 
because  of  a  special  condition  in  a  legacy.  There  are  a  certain  number  of 
special  schools  for  them.  At  present  I  find  only  one  mentioned,  at  Phila- 
delphia (Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania),  with  about  100 
students. 


UNIVERSITIES  105 

The  duration  of  the  medical  studies  is  at  present 
four  years.  This,  for  example,  is  the  arrangement  of 
subjects  at  Harvard : 

First  year:  Anatomy,  Histology,  Embryology,  Phys- 
iology, Biological  Chemistry. 

Second  year:  Bacteriology,  Pathology,  Prophylaxis 
and  Hygiene,  Pharmacology,  Medicine,  Surgery,  Neu- 
rology, Dermatology. 

Third  year:  Medicine,  Surgery,  Obstetrics,  X-rays, 
Syphilis,  Psychiatry,  Legal  Medicine. 

Fourth  year:  Numerous  scientific  or  clinical  special- 
ties, at  the  choice  of  the  candidates,  and  four  months  as 
clinical  clerk  in  a  hospital. 

The  degree  granted  at  the  end  of  the  studies  is  that 
of  Doctor  of  Medicine.  Harvard  also  gives  that  of  Doctor 
of  Public  Health  to  doctors  of  medicine  who  work  an 
additional  year  on  a  special  subject  and  write  a  thesis 
embodying  original  researches.1  Finally,  it  has  super- 
imposed upon  its  medical  school,  a  Graduate  School  of 
Medicine,  whose  work  consists  of  courses  and  especially 
of  original  scientific  research  in  the  laboratories.  It 
has  constituted,  within  it,  a  special  school  of  tropical 
medicine,  which  Professor  Strong  directs. 

To  sum  up,  the  teaching  of  medicine  is  still  in  a  period 
of  great  transformation,  and  throughout  the  country  is 
very  heterogeneous.  Mr.  Ho  well,  of  Johns  Hopkins, 
thinks  that  the  three  chief  problems  actually  under  dis- 
cussion are  the  opportuneness  of  a  third  year  of  clinical 
studies,  the  better  adaptation  of  clinical  professors  to 
the  scientific  method,  and  the  means  of  getting  them 
to  devote  themselves  more  to  their  teaching. 

1  Besides,  studies  on  branches  of  the  medical  sciences  may  be  combined 
with  college  studies  and  lead  to  the  degree  of  A.M.  or  Ph.D. 


106    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

4.  Dental  Schools 

While  the  United  States  remained  very  backward  in 
medical  studies,  the  practice  of  dentistry  —  in  which 
the  mechanical  has  a  very  large  part  —  developed  to  a 
very  high  degree  there.  Numerous  schools  were  organ- 
ized, a  large  number  of  which  are  attached  to  universi- 
ties. There  are  at  present  50,  with  9000  students  (more 
than  half  the  number  of  medical  students) .  The  dental 
school  is  a  constituent  and  sometimes  an  important  part 
of  most  of  the  large  universities.  That  of  Northwestern 
University  numbers,  in  1913-14,  615  students  (46  pro- 
fessors); that  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  has 
558  students  (63  professors);  that  of  Harvard  has  193 
students  (59  professors). 

These  schools  are  very  well  equipped.  The  length  of 
their  studies  is  three  years,  and  beginning  with  1917-18, 
will  be  extended  at  Harvard  and  in  a  certain  number  of 
other  schools  which  have  formed  an  association  to  four 
years.  At  the  Harvard  dental  school  the  studies  of  the 
first  year,  anatomy,  histology,  physiology,  chemistry 
and  dental  physiology,  and  general  pathology,  are  all 
taken  at  the  medical  school.  The  degree  granted  is  that 
of  Doctor  of  Dental  Medicine. 

5.  Schools  of  Pharmacy 

These  schools,  at  present  numbering  seventy-two,  are 
for  the  most  part,  attached  to  universities,  of  which  they 
form  a  special  college.  This  college,  however,  is  lacking 
in  a  certain  number  of  large  private  universities  (Har- 
vard, Chicago,  Johns  Hopkins,  Pennsylvania),  without 
doubt  because  the  schools  of  pharmacy  existing  in  their 
respective  cities  have  kept  themselves  independent.  In 


UNIVERSITIES  107 

New  York,  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  formerly  distinct, 
has  merged  with  Columbia. 

The  instruction  in  this  last  named  school  of  pharmacy 
is  given  in  two  degrees.  In  two  years  of  study  it  trains 
ordinary  pharmacists  and  chemist-pharmacists  of  the 
university.  A  third  year,  open  to  the  graduates  from 
the  first  course,  leads  to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Phar- 
macy, and  gives  the  technical  instruction  necessary  for 
the  new  work  of  pharmaceutical  laboratories  (micro- 
scopic, biological  analysis,  etc.). 

SECOND  GROUP.    PEDAGOGY,  ARCHITECTURE  AND 
FINE  ARTS,  JOURNALISM 

6.  Schools  of  Pedagogy 

The  theory  and  technique  of  education  are  a  subject 
of  study  very  much  in  favor  in  the  American  universi- 
ties. Almost  all  have  at  least  a  department  of  education 
in  the  college,  in  which  the  most  diverse  questions  of 
pedagogy  and  of  teaching  are  methodically  studied.  At 
Harvard  twenty-four  courses  (for  a  period  of  two  years) 
are  offered  in  this  division,  on  the  general  problems  of 
education,  psychology,  history  of  pedagogy,  theoretical 
and  practical  organization  of  teaching,  in  its  various 
stages.  Certain  of  these  courses  include  visits  to  schools 
or  even  practice  in  teaching  there.  Finally,  the  atten- 
tion of  the  students  is  drawn  to  a  list  of  courses  which 
are  given  in  other  parts  of  the  university,  such  as  Ameri- 
can institutions,  sociology,  philosophy  and  psychology. 

In  a  certain  number  of  universities,  there  is  a  real 
school  of  pedagogy,  more  or  less  independent.  The 
largest  is  that  of  Columbia,  at  New  York,  which  bears 
the  name  of  Teachers'  College  and  which,  in  1915-16, 


108    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

had  1972  students.1  Teachers'  College  is  an  institution 
which  was  founded  independently  in  1888,  and  which 
merged  with  Columbia  in  1\898,  while  retaining  a  very 
broad  autonomy.  This  college  has  its  special  board  of 
trustees.  It  is,  moreover,  very  heterogeneous.  In  fact 
it  includes  two  distinct  schools. 

One  is  a  school  of  pedagogy,  in  the  strict  sense,  for 
the  thorough  study  of  psychology,  sociology,  the  history 
and  philosophy  of  education,  administration  of  schools, 
and  the  various  types  of  instruction  (secondary,  techni- 
cal, elementary,  kindergarten).  It  is  the  professional 
institute  of  pedagogy  at  Columbia,  quite  as  much  as 
the  school  of  mines  or  of  medicine  is  professional.  The 
instruction  in  it  is  given  in  two  stages:  1,  two  years  of 
pedagogical  instruction,  to  which  students  already  hav- 
ing had  two  years  in  college  are  admitted,  and  it  grants 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science  in  Education.2  2,  more 
advanced  instruction,  a  prolongation  of  the  preceding, 
constituting,  in  brief,  a  graduate  school,  and  leading  to 
the  degrees  of  Master  and  Doctor  in  Teaching.  This 
advanced  instruction  brought  together,  in  the  last  few 
years,  about  350  graduates.  In  1911-12  672  students 
of  Teachers'  College  have  been  appointed  to  various 
teaching  positions,  110  of  them  in  colleges  or  uni- 
versities. 

The  other  school  comprised  in  Teachers'  College 
bears  the  name  of  School  of  Practical  Arts,  and  has  quite 
a  different  character.  It  is  also  open  to  men  and  women 
with  two  years  of  college,  and  its  aim  is  to  realize  a 

1  The  women  are  in  a  very  large  majority;  of  1803  students  in  1913-14, 
there  were  1431  women  and  372  men. 

2  It  is  clear  that  the  plan  of  this  instruction  is  modeled  on  that  of  the 
general  form  of  the  college,  as  regards  the  duration  of  the  studies  and  the 
degree  awarded. 


UNIVERSITIES  109 

mixed  type  of  higher  education,  uniting  liberal  culture 
and  technical  instruction  in  very  varied  directions, 
according  to  choice;  industrial  arts,  domestic  arts  (feed- 
ing, cooking,  dressmaking,  domestic  chemistry,  phys- 
iological chemistry,  nutrition,  nursing,  hygiene,  fine 
arts,  music,  physical  education,  etc.).  The  school  has 
laboratories  and  studios  permitting  practical  work. 
Sixty-four  courses  were  given  in  1911-12.  At  the  same 
time,  it  prepares  teachers  for  these  various  branches. 

At  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  School  of  Education, 
which  had,  in  1915-16,  1394  students  (1196  of  them 
women),  has,  in  brief,  a  plan  rather  like  that  which  we 
have  just  seen  at  Columbia.  It  includes,  in  fact,  four 
divisions:  1,  an  advanced  section  for  graduates;  2,  a 
College  of  Education  —  a  professional  school  for  the 
training  of  teachers  of  secondary  and  primary  branches 
-parallel  to  the  classical  college,  conceived  on  the 
same  plan,  but  with  specialization  of  studies  in  ped- 
agogy; 1  3,  the  University  High  School;  4,  the  Uni- 
versity Elementary  School.  These  last  two  play,  for 
secondary  and  primary  education,  the  role  of  the 
schools  annexed  to  our  primary  normal  schools;  the 
students  of  the  first  two  sections  are  trained  practically 
in  teaching.  The  students  of  the  School  of  Education, 
on  the  other  hand,  may  take  any  of  the  University 
courses. 

The  two  examples  of  Columbia  and  Chicago  show 
how  broadly  pedagogical  problems  are  conceived.  These 
two  schools  are  the  most  important;  but  some  exist  in 
other  universities,  which  have  300  to  500  students. 

In  the  training  of  teachers,  a  very  debatable  but  very 

1  There  are  special  sections  for  the  manual  arts  and  for  domestic  economy, 
as  at  Teachers'  College. 


110    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

interesting  tendency  will  be  noted,  not  to  establish 
water-tight  bulkheads  between  the  three  orders,  pri- 
mary, secondary,  and  higher  instruction.  The  results 
ought  to  be  studied,  and  I  have  no  data  in  this  regard. 

7.  Schools  of  Fine  Arts,  Architecture,  Music 

Architecture  is  taught  in  a  goodly  number  of  uni- 
versities, in  which  it  constitutes  a  special  school.  In 
the  universities  of  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  and  Cornell, 
this  school  includes  as  many  as  250  students.  It  is 
frequently  subdivided  into  two,  one  for  architecture 
proper,  and  the  other  called  School  of  Landscape  Archi- 
tecture. This  last  specialization  has  an  important  role 
in  America,  by  reason  of  the  creation  and  development 
of  cities.  In  the  West  especially,  the  traveler  is  struck 
by  the  uniformity  of  the  plan  of  the  new  cities,  which 
rests  on  fixed  principles:  the  streets  are  laid  out  in  a 
broad  fashion,  and  hygiene  is  seriously  studied. 

At  Columbia  the  School  of  Fine  Arts  is  subdivided 
into  three  parts,  architecture,  music,  and  design.  This 
last  is  scarcely  more  than  a  project.  At  Harvard  the 
Fine  Arts  courses  (to  the  number  of  about  forty),  or  of 
music 1  (twelve),  form  a  department  in  the  college. 
The  school  of  architecture  alone  is  distinct. 

The  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Yale,  and  also 
universities  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin,  have  each  a 
special  music  school. 

These  very  summary  indications  suffice  to  show  the 
extended  range  of  the  universities  in  these  directions. 

1  Notably,  there  is  a  course  on  Vincent  d'Indy,  Faure  and  Debussy. 


UNIVERSITIES  111 

8.  Schools  of  Journalism 

This  type  of  school,  of  a  quite  modern  character,  was 
first  brought  into  being  at  Columbia  (136  students  in 
1913-14),  thanks  to  a  gift  of  one  million  dollars,  made  to 
the  university  by  the  owner  of  the  World.  Later,  its 
example  has  been  followed  by  some  other  universities 
(Wisconsin,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Tulane,  New  York 
University) . 

The  aim  is  to  train  young  men  for  the  journalistic 
profession,  and  also  to  perfect  journalists  already  at 
work,  in  the  practice  of  their  profession.  The  course  of 
studies,  for  the  former,  is  four  years,  and  leads  to  a  de- 
gree of  Bachelor  of  Literature.  The  program  includes 
the  following  subjects:  English,  German  or  French, 
European  literatures,  history,  philosophy,  economic 
sciences,  history  and  principles  of  science,  and  technical 
courses  (reporting,  interviewing,  publishing,  etc.). 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  PROFESSIONAL  SCHOOLS 

Third  group:  Advanced  Schools  of  Commerce.  Harvard  Graduate  School 
of  Business  Administration.  Chicago.  Philadelphia.  Engineering  Schools: 
Origin,  the  Morrill  Act,  and  the  Colleges  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanics. 
Independent  Schools  of  Technology.  The  various  engineering  specializa- 
tions. Practical  character  of  the  instruction.  Schools  of  Agriculture:  R61e 
of  the  Morrill  Act.  Colleges  of  Agriculture.  Cornell,  California,  Illinois  Uni- 
versities, etc.  The  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Colleges.  Veterinary 
Schools. 

T  CONSIDER  together  these  three  kinds  of  schools, 
•1  which  tend  to  assume  a  large  and  more  and  more 
individualized  place  in  many  American  universities. 
These  are  the  ones  which  are  most  foreign  to  our  notion 
of  a  university.  Their  existence  and  their  rapid  growth 
are  in  direct  relation  to  the  character  and  needs  of 
American  society,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  universities 
remain  in  close  contact  with  the  general  life  of  the 
nation. 

9.  Schools  of  Commerce 

Commercial  schools  of  a  lower  order,  training  busi- 
ness employees  or  clerks,  are  extremely  numerous  in 
the  United  States.  The  Report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  shows,  in  1914,  3618  schools  where  one 
may  thus  prepare  for  business,  with  346,770  students. 
The  universities,  faithful  to  their  general  aim,  have 
proposed  to  train  the  general  staff  of  this  commercial 
army,  the  leaders  in  this  domain  as  in  the  others.  They 
have  entered  in  different  degrees  on  this  path;  those 

112 


UNIVERSITIES  113 

which  have  advanced  the  farthest  are  those  in  the  great 
cities  of  the  East. 

The  University  of  Pennsylvania  at  Philadelphia,  re- 
ceived, in  1881,  a  gift  of  $100,000  to  develop  advanced 
commercial  instruction,  and  organized  with  this  in  view, 
a  school  named,  in  honor  of  the  donor,  Wharton  School 
of  Finance  and  Economy.  It  had  1889  students  in  1915- 
16.  The  University  of  Chicago,  from  its  first  years, 
has  had  a  school  of  Commerce  and  Administration, 
which  has  at  present  200  students.  New  York  Uni- 
versity has  a  School  of  Commerce  attended,  in  1915- 
16,  by  2639  men  and  women.  I  shall  indicate  also 
the  figures  relative  to  this  category  of  students  in  the 
following  universities:  Pittsburgh  (916),  Northwestern 
(741),  Wisconsin  (542),  Illinois  (527),  California  (308). 

Even  Harvard,  the  most  classical  of  the  universities, 
organized  a  school  of  this  kind  in  1908,  but  has  tried  to 
make  a  superior  type  out  of  it.  It  has  required  a  Bache- 
lor's degree  for  entrance  and  has  made  of  it  the  Graduate 
School  of  Business  Administration,  which  had  182  stu- 
dents in  1915-16.  The  courses  in  it  last  two  years  and 
lead  to  a  master's  diploma.  The  students  who  enter 
this  school  at  Harvard  have  already  specialized  with 
this  intention,  during  their  two  last  years  in  college,  by 
choosing  studies  relating  to  economic  questions.  The 
instruction  in  the  school  includes  courses  on  account- 
ing, commercial  law,  marketing,  factory  organization 
(in  particular  there  are  courses  on  the  Taylor  system), 
general  commercial  practice,  exporting,  banking  and 
finance,  insurance  transportation  (administration  and 
development  of  railroads),  printing  and  publishing, 
public  works,  lumbering.  It  gives  technical  knowledge 
concerning  the  various  branches  of  business  to  young 


114    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

men  already  trained  by  the  general  culture  of  the 
college. 

At  Chicago,  the  School  of  Commerce  and  Adminis- 
tration is  an  undergraduate  school,  parallel  to  the  clas- 
sical college,  and  extended  by  an  advanced  section  for 
graduates.  During  the  four  years,  the  instruction  in- 
cludes fundamental  required  courses  and  elective 
courses,  which  the  students  choose  according  to  their 
intended  careers.  The  school  is  moreover  divided  into 
four  sections:  business,  commercial  teaching  (a  sec- 
tion training  professors  of  elementary  business  schools), 
secretarial  course,  social  service.  In  this  last  section 
there  are  numerous  courses  on  the  various  social  prob- 
lems (public  and  industrial  hygiene,  economic  legisla- 
tion, municipal  legislation,  criminality,  prostitution, 
immigration,  study  of  the  various  ethnical  types,  soci- 
ology, trade  unionism,  games,  etc.).  At  the  same  time 
the  students  may  take  advantage  of  the  courses  in  the 
university.  This  is  an  organization  of  great  flexibility, 
providing  preparation  for  interesting  social  activities. 

At  Philadelphia  the  Wharton  School  is  also  an  under- 
graduate college,  parallel  to  the  classical  college,  re- 
quiring the  same  conditions  for  entrance  and  offering  a 
four  years'  course.  The  program  is  extremely  broad, 
and  has  for  its  reward  the  diploma  of  Bachelor  of  Science 
in  Economics. 

I  limit  myself  to  these  examples.  They  suffice  to 
show  the  end,  which  is  to  give  future  business  men  a 
culture  comparable  in  breadth  to  the  classical  culture, 
but  adapted  to  their  needs.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
general  mold  into  which  these  various  practical  adap- 
tations are  run,  clings  to  the  forms  of  the  old  college. 


UNIVERSITIES  115 

10.  Engineering  Schools 

The  engineering  schools,  are,  at  the  present  time,  one 
of  the  essential  and  characteristic  elements  of  the  Ameri- 
can universities,  and  are  among  those  which  are  every 
day  taking  on  a  wider  scope.  That  there  should  be 
great  engineering  schools  in  the  United  States  is  not 
surprising;  but  the  interesting  fact  is  that  the  universi- 
ties should  have  understood  the  utility  for  themselves 
of  keeping  this  branch  which  is  so  important  for  the 
training  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  nation,  within  their 
domain.  They  did  not,  however,  understand  it  at  first. 
The  movement  began  outside  the  colleges,  and  devel- 
oped, in  a  certain  measure,  in  spite  of  them.  The  engi- 
neering schools  and  the  schools  of  agriculture  are 
closely  associated  in  their  history,  from  this  point  of 
view. 

The  oldest  engineering  school  in  the  United  States 
is  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute  at  Troy,  in  New 
York  state,  founded  in  1824,  with  a  very  remarkable 
program,  for  its  time,  and  which  even  today  is  very 
prosperous.  About  1850,  as  has  been  said,  Harvard 
established  courses  in  pure  and  applied  sciences,  which 
formed  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  (where  Louis 
Agassiz  found  a  chair) ,  and  Yale  similarly  organized  the 
Sheffield  Scientific  School.  These  two  schools  have  re- 
mained, in  a  certain  measure,  distinct  from  the  college. 
Harvard's  has  undergone  rather  numerous  vicissitudes, 
and  has  for  the  time  being,  in  a  very  large  measure 
merged,  so  far  as  teaching  is  concerned,  with  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology.  Yale's  still  exists, 
and  has  nearly  800  students,  who  are  not  mingled  at 
all  with  those  of  the  college  proper.  The  degree  of 


116    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Bachelor  of  Science  (S.B.),  has  never  had  a  prestige 
entirely  equivalent  to  the  A.B. 

In  a  general  way,  the  colleges,  imbued  with  an  un- 
yielding traditional  classicism,  up  to  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century  did  not  show  any  eagerness  to  favor 
the  development  of  the  applied  sciences.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  country  felt  keenly  the  need  of  scientific  edu- 
cation, and  in  a  very  utilitarian  form.  This  conflict 
resulted,  in  1862,  in  the  midst  of  the  Civil  War,  with 
the  passage  by  Congress  of  the  Morrill  Act,  which  has 
been  of  capital  importance  in  the  history  of  technical 
education  and  even  of  the  universities  in  general.  By 
the  terms  of  this  law,  each  state  or  territory  of  the 
Union  was  given  as  many  times  thirty  thousand  acres 
of  public  lands  as  the  state  had  representatives  and 
senators  in  the  Congress.  Thus  the  populous  states  of 
the  East  received  large  tracts  of  land,  about  a  million 
acres  for  New  York  state,  780,000  acres  for  Pennsyl- 
vania, etc.  These  lands  could  be  conveyed.  The  pro- 
ceeds must  be  devoted  to  education,  and  in  preference 
to  the  teaching  of  agriculture  and  mechanic  arts,  but 
without  excluding  classical  education. 

The  text  of  the  law  provided  for  "the  endowment 
and  maintenance  of  at  least  one  college,  whose  principal 
object  shall  be,  without  excluding  other  scientific  and 
classical  studies,  and  including  military  instruction,1  to 
teach  the  branches  of  knowledge  in  relation  to  agricul- 
ture and  the  mechanic  arts,  under  the  conditions  which 
the  legislatures  may  respectively  prescribe,  in  order  to 
develop  the  liberal  and  practical  instruction  of  the  in- 
dustrial classes,  in  view  of  the  various  enterprises  and 
professions  of  life." 

1  It  was  the  time  of  the  Civil  War. 


UNIVERSITIES 


117 


The  resources  provided  by  this  law  were  applied,  in 
each  state,  to  the  creation  of  an  institution  which  gen- 
erally took  and  often  still  possesses  the  title  of  Agricul- 
tural and  Mechanical  College.  I  shall  return  to  these 
establishments  when  I  consider  the  agricultural  schools. 
For  the  moment,  I  limit  myself  to  recalling  that,  in 
many  cases,  they  were  the  first  nucleus  of  the  present 
state  universities.1  Consequently,  the  presence  of  an 
engineering  school  in  the  latter  is  natural  and  in  some 
sort  congenial. 

But  today,  almost  all  the  large  or  medium  sized  uni- 
versities, whatever  their  origin,  have  one.  And  besides, 
there  are  a  certain  number  of  independent  schools  of 
technology  or  polytechnic  schools,  some  of  them  very 
important.  I  shall  mention,  for  example,  the  following: 


Location 

Name 

Founded 

Number 
of 
Students 

Boston,  Mass. 

Mass.  Institute  of  Technology  2 

1865 

1700 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Polytechnic  Institute  of  Brooklyn 

1854 

786 

Chicago,  111. 

Armour  Institute  of  Technology 

1893 

527 

Cleveland,  Ohio 

Case  School  of  Applied  Science 

1880 

534 

Hoboken,  N.  J. 

Stevens  Institute  of  Technology 

1871 

324 

Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Carnegie  Institute  of  Technology 

1905 

1219  3 

Troy,  N.  Y. 

Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute 

1824 

626 

Worcester,  Mass. 

Worcester  Polytechnic  Institute 

1868 

535 

I  have  not  had  at  hand  recent  and  complete  statistics 
of  the  engineering  students.  Statistics  given  by  Science, 

1  That  is  the  case  with  the  following:    Arizona,  Arkansas,  California, 
Florida,  Idaho,  Illinois,  Indiana  (Purdue  University),  Kentucky,  Louisiana, 
Minnesota,   Missouri,   Nebraska,   Nevada,   Ohio,   Tennessee,   Wisconsin, 
Wyoming. 

2  This  institution  has  shared  in  the  benefits  of  the  Morrill  Act. 

3  Of  these,  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight  are  women. 


118    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

in  1909,  showed  144  technological  schools  or  engineer- 
ing colleges.  One  hundred  of  these  schools,  in  1907, 
already  represented  more  than  33,000  students.  On  the 
other  hand,  here  are  some  figures  which  show  the  im- 
portance of  the  engineering  schools  in  some  of  the  large 
universities  in  1915-16: 

Students  Students 

Michigan 1498  California 712 

Cornell 1437  Pennsylvania 611 

Purdue 1400  Missouri 564 

Illinois 1039  Cincinnati 474 

Ohio 841  Stanford 434 

Wisconsin 758  Harvard ." . .  422 

Yale  (Sheff.  Sch.) 790  Columbia 341 l 

These  indications  suffice  to  show  that  a  real  army  of 
engineers  is  constantly  being  trained  in  the  United 
States,  and  in  large  part,  in  the  universities. 

The  instruction  covers  many  and  various  specializa- 
tions, according  to  the  region  and  its  peculiar  needs. 
The  engineer's  education  looks  less  toward  giving 
advanced  scientific  knowledge,  and  more  toward  a  prac- 
tical preparation.  The  principal  divisions  of  the  engi- 
neering schools  bear  the  following  names :  civil,  sanitary, 
mechanical,  electrical,  chemical,  mining  engineers,  and 
metallurgists.  These  are  the  most  important,  and  are 
in  all  the  schools.  But  in  certain  schools  there  is  a  special 
section  for  drainage  and  tiling  engineers.  In  the  south- 
ern states,  like  Louisiana,  there  are  sections  for  sugar 
mill  engineers  and  for  engineers  of  the  textile  industries 
(Georgia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  Texas).  In  Cali- 
fornia and  in  the  states  using  dry  farming  (Utah, 
Wyoming)  there  is  a  special  section  for  irrigation.  There 
are  special  sections  for  naval  architecture  (Massachu- 

1  As  one  sees,  the  large  classical  universities  are  not  at  the  head  as  to 
engineering  schools,  at  least  in  number  of  students. 


UNIVERSITIES  119 

setts  Institute  of  Technology,  Michigan), for  aeronautics 
and  aviation  (Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology) . 
The  Armour  Institute  of  Chicago  has  special  courses  on 
fire  protection  engineering. 

The  level  of  studies  varies  with  the  institution,  but 
in  a  general  way  it  is  relatively  low.  Harvard,  faithful 
to  its  general  system  for  professional  schools,  had  of 
late  years  sought  to  make  a  graduate  school  of  its 
school  of  applied  sciences  (Lawrence  Scientific  School), 
but  has  given  it  up. 

Today  the  plan  of  engineering  studies  is  modeled 
after  that  of  the  classical  college  —  four  years  lead  to 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  science  in  engineering.  In 
the  course  of  the  classical  college  studies,  one  can  pass 
into  the  engineering  schools,  and  the  studies  already 
taken  are  given  credit.  In  normal  conditions,  the  first 
year  is  common  to  all  the  specialties,  and  includes  the 
elements  of  the  sciences,  design,  and  the  study  of  modern 
languages.  Specialization  begins  in  the  second  year, 
which  still  includes  much  instruction  in  pure  sciences. 
The  technical  courses  are  largely  placed  in  the  third 
and  fourth  years.1  Each  section  includes  many  special 
courses,  some  required,  others  optional,  and  these  op- 
tions are  extremely  varied.  The  year's  instruction  is 
completed  by  several  weeks  spent  in  camps,  in  practical 
field-work,  during  vacations. 

Harvard,  for  example,  as  has  already  been  said,  has 
an  engineering  camp  of  750  acres  in  New  Hampshire, 
where  for  eleven  weeks  each  year,  exercises  in  survey- 
ing, topography  and  laying  out  railroad  lines  are  car- 

1  The  ordinary  studies  may  be  prolonged  and  deepened  during  a  fifth 
year,  leading  to  the  degree  of  Master  of  Engineering.  In  certain  universi- 
ties, in  particular  at  Harvard,  there  is  even  a  degree  of  Doctor  of  Engineering, 
given  on  conditions  parallel  to  the  Ph.D. 


120    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ried  on,  and  a  mining  camp  in  Vermont  where  for  six 
weeks  the  students  may  practise  underground  explora- 
tion, the  management  of  the  machinery,  and  the  diverse 
operations  which  the  engineer  is  called  upon  to  carry 
out  in  the  field. 

I  have  not  the  necessary  qualifications  for  dealing 
thoroughly  with  the  engineering  schools,  but  there  are 
a  certain  number  of  facts  which  seem  to  come  out 
clearly  enough  to  be  set  down  here. 

The  first  is  the  immense  development  of  this  kind  of 
teaching  and  its  direct  connection  with  the  industrial 
activity  of  the  country.  However,  the  universities  are 
directly  associated  with  this  movement,  while  with  us 
they  are  outside  of  it.  We  often  speak  of  the  necessary 
relations  of  science  and  industry.  One  of  the  conditions 
which  can  develop  them  is  to  interest  directly  the 
scientific  centres  in  the  training  of  the  industrial  per- 
sonnel. And  at  the  same  time  it  is  an  important  ques- 
tion for  the  vitality  of  the  universities.  If  you  take  from 
them  a  priori  all  those  youths  who  look  at  things  from 
the  industrial  point  of  view,  you  weaken  them  in  an 
almost  fatal  way.  On  the  other  hand,  industry  is  on 
the  border  of  pure  science.  Between  the  pure  and  the 
applied  sciences,  a  barrier  is  erected  which  does  not 
exist  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  which  would  not  seem 
to  exist  if  theories  and  applications  rubbed  elbows  in 
the  same  schools. 

A  second  fact  is  the  breadth  of  the  modern  equipment 
of  the  engineering  schools  and  technological  institutes. 
In  1916  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 
of  Boston  moved  into  new  buildings  on  Charles  River. 
They  cover  more  than  fifty  acres.  I  must  note  how 
numerous  and  vast  the  laboratories  are:  special  labora- 


UNIVERSITIES 

tories  for  steam  and  compressed  air,  for  hydraulics,  cold, 
tests  of  materials,  gas  motors,  measures  of  force,  for 
mines  and  metallurgy,  physics,  chemistry,  physical 
chemistry,  applied  chemistry,  electricity,  biology  and 
public  health,  bacteriology,  geology  and  mineralogy, 
and  aerodynamics.  Each  of  these  laboratories  has 
powerful  machines  which  are  not  toys,  not  to  be  enum- 
erated here.1  The  buildings,  which  have  just  been 
finished,  cost  no  less  than  $3,500,000,  in  large  part 
given  by  an  anonymous  benefactor.  The  land  cost  a 
million  dollars.  The  equipment  is  estimated  at  $750,- 
000.  The  complete  program  of  reinstallation  comes  to 
$7,000,000.  Such  is  the  scale  on  which  a  great  engineer- 
ing school  is  rebuilt  in  America  today! 

A  last  remark  which  I  permit  myself  is  that  the  con- 
ditions of  training  of  the  American  engineer  and  of  his 
French  colleague  are  very  different.  The  latter  cer- 
tainly has  a  very  marked  superiority  for  theoretical 
scientific  instruction.  I  was  told  moreover,  that  since 
the  war  has  brought  into  the  American  factories  a 
rather  large  number  of  our  engineers,  the  fact  is  per- 
fectly recognized.  There  is  nothing  in  the  United 
States  comparable  to  the  preparation  in  our  courses  of 
the  Ecole  polytechnique  or  the  Ecole  Centrale.  The  first- 
year  students,  the  freshmen,  of  the  engineering  schools, 
are  very  weak.2  It  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  Ameri- 

1  Cf.  Bulletin  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  vol.  Hi,  1916,  pp. 
353  ff. 

2  Mr.  R.  C.  Mann,  in  an  investigation  published  by  the  Bulletin  of  the 
Society  for  the  promotion  of  Engineers'  Education  (vol.  viii,  1916)  gives  the 
results  of  tests  made  of  the  freshmen  in  22  engineering  schools.    For  ex- 

a  +  b 
ample,  only  a  third  of  them  could  calculate  exactly,  for  x  =  — 5 —  the  value 

(x~  a)3      x-2a  +  6 
of  the  algebraic  expression,  — —? ^p — _    .  • 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

can  engineer  gives  abundant  proof  of  all  the  qualities 
which  are  expected  of  him.  What  is  asked  of  him  is 
"not  to  be  a  savant,  but  a  practical  man,  a  business 
man  and  a  financier.  His  art  is  not  only  to  adapt  the 
forces  of  nature  to  the  use  of  man,  but  to  do  it  economi- 
cally. .  .  .  The  engineer  must  not  build  a  fine  bridge, 
with  costly  details,  difficult  to  execute,  in  the  desire  of 
leaving  a  monument  behind  him."  l  He  is  first  of  all  a 
man  of  action. 

The  difference  between  applied  science  and  pure 
science  is  not  in  the  methods  (accordingly  bringing  the 
two  together  in  the  university  is  good),  but  in  the  end, 
that  of  the  first  being  utilitarian,  and  that  of  the  second 
philosophical.  The  practical  has  its  own  value  and 
dignity,  but  it  must  rest  not  on  empiricism  but  on  a 
scientific  basis.  The  engineer's  education  must  be  in- 
spired with  scientific  principles,  but  not  lose  sight  of 
the  practical  side.  It  must  not  be  theoretical,  but  its 
motto  must  be,  as  Mr.  McLaurin,  the  president  of  the 
Boston  Institute  of  Technology  said,  "learning  by 
doing." 

This  practical  character  is  the  fundamental  trait  of 
the  training  of  American  engineers.  It  is  sometimes 
pushed  very  far.  At  the  University  of  Cincinnati,  the 
engineering  students  work  in  alternate  periods  in  the 
university  laboratories  and  in  the  factories  of  the  city, 
with  which  an  arrangement  has  been  made  to  this 
effect. 

The  truth  would  probably  lie  between  our  system  and 
that  of  the  Americans.  The  latter  would  gain  by  having 
engineers  with  a  more  solid  scientific  instruction  at  the 
foundation  —  in  that  as  in  the  other  parts  of  the  univer- 

1  Swain,  Science,  January  2,  1910,  pp.  81-93. 


UNIVERSITIES 

sity,  the  real  problem  is  the  strengthening  of  secondary 
studies  —  but  the  education  of  our  engineers  is  much 
too  theoretical,  not  even  useful  in  real  life,  and  turns 
the  mind  away  from  the  practical  conception  of  things. 
Think  of  the  mathematical  education  of  the  Polytech- 
nic students,  and  even  their  education  in  physics  and 
chemistry.  What  share  has  the  laboratory  —  and  real 
life  —  in  it? 

On  the  other  hand,  the  American  engineer's  career  is 
determined  by  what  he  has  to  give  in  life.  The  di- 
ploma with  which  he  starts  out  plays,  so  to  speak,  no 
part.  He  is  judged  by  his  acts  as  a  mature  man,  not  on 
a  prize  won  in  youth  at  school,  under  conditions  which 
have  no  relation  to  those  which  make  for  the  man's 
worth.  They  do  not  begin  by  eliminating,  by  way  of 
prizes,  the  greater  number  of  the  young  men,  while 
giving  to  a  minority  the  advantage  of  a  formidable 
handicap,  which  often  turns  them  away  from  all  serious 
effort  on  the  day  when  it  ought  to  begin,  and  which 
makes  them  believe  in  a  definitive  superiority,  before 
it  has  been  put  to  the  test  of  life.  The  American  ap- 
proaches life  at  twenty-two,  without  being  tired  out  by 
the  conventional  school  work,  without  being  spoiled  by 
the  success  he  may  have  had  in  it,  or  discouraged,  but 
with  the  feeling  that  life  is  just  beginning.  The  French- 
man of  that  age,  often  with  his  head  buzzing  with 
theory,  is  already  tired  and  has  the  illusion  that  he  has 
finally  stood  the  test. 

11.  Agricultural  Schools 

The  Morrill  Act  of  1862,  completed  by  other  legis- 
lative acts  which  have  added  new  gifts,  was  the  point  of 
departure  for  very  widespread  teaching  of  agriculture, 


124    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

as  well  as  of  engineering.  Agriculture  was,  before  in- 
dustry, and  is  today  as  much  as  the  latter,  one  of  the 
fundamental  resources  of  the  United  States.  Its  con- 
ditions are  very  different  from  those  of  Europe,  and 
resemble  those  of  industry.  The  enormity  of  distances, 
the  labor  difficulties,  the  biological  conditions,  often 
very  different  from  ours,  have  compelled  great  innova- 
tions, which  were  all  the  easier  because  there  was,  on 
American  soil,  no  obstacle  of  traditions,  more  than  a 
thousand  years  old.  The  value  of  scientific  methods  is 
today  understood  everywhere  by  the  American  farmer, 
and  the  diffusion  of  agricultural  instruction,  through 
the  universities  and  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical 
Colleges,  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  it.1  The  farmer  of 
the  younger  generation  has  passed  through  one  of 
them;  he  has  the  idea  of  the  power  of  science  and  of 
method.  This  mentality  explains  the  rapid  propaga- 
tion of  the  processes  of  dry  farming  and  of  irrigation. 
The  immense  and  magnificent  orchards  of  California 
suggest  the  psychology  of  an  industrial  environment 
much  more  than  that  of  a  farming  environment. 

The  teaching  of  agricultural  biology  is  scarcely  rep- 
resented in  the  eastern  universities.  Yet  Harvard  had 
one  of  the  first  agricultural  schools,  but  it  has  now 
transformed  it  into  an  institute  of  general  applied  bi- 
ology, devoted  especially  to  the  experimental  study  of 

1  A  great  farm  near  Chicago,  such  as  one  I  had  an  opportunity  to  visit, 
reveals  a  quite  different  kind  of  life  and  of  methods  from  those  of  our  rural 
districts.  In  spite  of  the  remoteness  from  urban  centres,  and  the  isolation, 
it  is  much  more  impregnated  with  the  city  atmosphere  and  ideas.  It  is 
true  that  the  distances  are  today  very  much  lessened  by  the  automobile. 
In  Kansas,  a  great  agricultural  state,  there  was  in  1916  an  automobile  for 
every  five  inhabitants.  That  is  to  say,  there  was  scarcely  a  farmer  who  did 
not  own  one. 


UNIVERSITIES 

heredity,  the  Bussey  Institution.  But  it  is  especially 
the  universities  which  have  benefited  from  the  Morrill 
Act  which  show  a  great  development  toward  agricul- 
ture, and  in  which  it  has  a  special  college. 

Cornell  University,  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  at  the  time  of 
its  foundation,  received  lands  granted  by  the  Morrill 
Act  to  New  York  state  —  more  than  1,000,000  acres. 
Its  college  of  agriculture  is  the  most  developed  of  all, 
and  has  more  than  1500  students.  It  is  housed  and 
equipped  in  a  very  complete  and  modern  manner;  out- 
side of  the  fundamental  scientific  courses,  a  very  com- 
plete group  of  special  courses  adapted  to  agriculture: 
plant  physiology,  horticulture,  pomology,  vegetable 
pathology,  growth  of  plants,  entomology,  animal 
physiology,  biological  chemistry,  forest  biology,  struc- 
ture of  soils,  rural  economy,  farm  equipment  and  man- 
agement, agricultural  mechanics,  stock  and  poultry 
raising,  dairying,  etc. 

Entomology,  in  particular,  under  the  direction  of 
Professor  Comstock,  for  over  forty  years,  has  had  a 
development  which  it  has  attained  nowhere  else,  and 
Cornell  is  one  of  the  principal  centres  for  the  training  of 
the  staff  of  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Entomology,  which 
will  be  considered  in  the  second  part.  There  are  no  less 
than  twenty  courses  in  entomology,  general  and  special- 
ized, elementary  or  advanced.  The  studies  in  entomol- 
ogy can  be  combined  with  those  in  agriculture  and  in 
botany.  For  these  sciences  there  is  as  rich  a  diversity 
of  studies  as  for  the  classical  college.  A  detailed  de- 
scription of  them  will  be  found  in  Mr.  Paul  MarchaPs 
book,  which  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  cite.1 

The  Illinois  and  California  universities,  and  even  a 

1  LOG.  tit.,  pp.  250-287. 


126    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

certain  number  of  others,  like  that  of  Nevada,  also 
have  large  colleges  of  agriculture. 

Here  are  the  numbers  of  students  in  the  agricultural 
colleges  of  a  few  universities,  in  1915-16: 

Cornell 1535  California 540 

Wisconsin 1091  Minnesota 598 

Illinois 958  Missouri 536 

Ohio 973  Nebraska 436 

At  the  University  of  California  there  are  numerous 
courses  relating  to  the  various  branches  of  agriculture 
in  that  state,  such  as  courses  in  oenology,  citriculture, 
pomology,  and  oleiculture.  The  instruction  in  the  col- 
lege of  agriculture  is  combined  with  that  of  the  college 
of  engineering,  for  example,  so  far  as  irrigation  is  con- 
cerned. 

The  plan  of  the  studies  of  the  agricultural  colleges 
is  modeled  on  the  classical  college,  four  years  leading  to 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science  in  agriculture.  There 
are  also  higher  studies  leading  to  the  degrees  of  Master 
and  even  of  Doctor.  In  1913-14  8503  Bachelor's  de- 
grees and  1497  higher  degrees  were  granted,  including  the 
Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Colleges.  Of  the  Bachelors, 
1903  were  students  in  the  agricultural  courses. 

The  state  universities  and  their  agricultural  instruc- 
tion cannot  be  isolated  from  the  agricultural  colleges, 
of  which  they  are  an  extension.1  Universities  and 
colleges,  the  progeny  of  the  Morrill  Act  today  num- 
ber sixty-nine.  Seventeen  of  this  number,  exclusively 
for  negroes,  are  of  a  primary  level,  and  are  really 

1  Here  is  the  list  of  the  courses  given  in  these  colleges:  agriculture,  horti- 
culture, forest  biology,  veterinary  science,  engineering  (mechanical,  civil, 
electrical,  mining,  chemical,  railroad,  textile  industry,  etc.),  architecture, 
domestic  economy,  chemistry,  pharmacy,  general  sciences. 


UNIVERSITIES 

workshops.  But  the  following  figures,  relative  to  all, 
show  what  enormous  resources  are  dedicated  to  the 
diffusion  of  agricultural  and  mechanical  knowledge, 
and  how  these  resources  have  grown  recently.1 


1892 

1914 

Number  of  colleges.  .  .                    

60 

69 

Number  of  volumes  in  their  libraries  
Total  value  of  their  property  

724,000 
$7,012,000 

4,395,000 
$60,298,000 

Total  revenues 

$4,033,000 

$34,891,224 

Number  of  students  in  the  colleges  proper  . 

10,719 

38,971  2 

A  small  number  of  these  colleges  are  specially  agri- 
cultural, such  as  that  of  Massachusetts,  at  Amherst, 
which  has  played  a  part  similar  to  that  of  Cornell,  in 
entomology. 

Some  of  them  are  very  large.  Those  of  Colorado, 
Iowa,  Michigan,  Oklahoma,  North  Dakota,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Utah,  have  several  thousand  students. 
They  are  interesting  as  still  representing  what  the 
state  universities  were  at  the  beginning,  and  from 
which  a  certain  number  still  differ  only  relatively  little. 

12.  Veterinary  Schools 

In  1913  the  veterinary  schools  numbered  22,  with 
364  professors  and  2481  students  (only  one  woman). 
Veterinary  instruction  has  only  very  recently  developed 

1  The  Morrill  Act  was  completed  by  other  laws,  in  1883,  1890,  and  1907. 
The  two  last,  alone,  carry  an  annual  federal  appropriation  of  $50,000  to 
each  state.  These  laws  have  organized  in  every  state,  agricultural  experi- 
ment stations,  which  are  often  in  regular  connection  with  the  colleges  or 
universities. 

8  Thirty-seven  per  cent  follow  the  agricultural  courses,  40  per  cent  the 
mechanical  courses,  13  per  cent  those  in  sciences,  10  per  cent  those  in 
domestic  economy. 


128    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

in  a  regular  and  methodical  manner,  and  in  the  agri- 
cultural colleges  or  the  state  universities.  The  first 
course  relative  to  the  veterinary  art  was  begun  at 
Cornell  in  1868.  The  oldest  school  dates  from  1880. 
The  most  important  is  that  of  Cornell.  There  are  also 
important  ones  at  New  York  University,  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  State,  and  George  Washington 
Universities.  The  course  of  veterinary  studies  is  gen- 
erally three  years. 

To  conclude  this  rapid  review  of  the  schools,  into 
which  an  American  university  of  today  is  divided,  I 
must  add  that  their  respective  limits  are  not  absolutely 
rigid.  We  have  been  able  to  see,  in  the  course  of  the 
preceding  survey,  that,  for  example,  the  students  of  the 
schools  or  colleges  of  agriculture,  of  industry,  of  com- 
merce, or  of  education,  take  the  general  cultural  courses 
under  the  Faculty  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  There  are  even 
many  courses  common  to  the  colleges  of  agriculture 
and  of  engineering.  A  certain  confusion  may  result 
from  this.  But  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  advantage 
in  that  the  university  keeps  its  unity  and  that  the  more 
and  more  numerous  subdivisions  which  must  neces- 
sarily be  differentiated,  are  not  separated  by  water- 
tight bulkheads,  as  are,  for  example,  our  Faculties  of 
Letters  and  of  Sciences. 


CHAPTER  XI 

UNIVERSITY  EXTENSION  AND  THE  SUMMER 
SESSION 

Importance  and  character  of  the  summer  session.  University  of  Chicago 
quarter  system.  Extension  proper:  its  beginnings.  Chautauqua  institutes. 
Extension  at  Harvard,  at  Columbia,  in  the  state  universities  (California, 
Wisconsin).  Breadth  of  university  extension. 

THE  activity  of  the  American  universities  is  not 
strictly  limited  to  their  regular  instruction.  It  has 
a  very  considerable  complement  in  university  extension 
under  its  diverse  forms,  and  in  the  summer  session, 
which  is  a  particular  case  of  extension,  but  which  we 
shall  consider  first. 

Harvard  seems  to  have  been  the  first  university  to 
hold  vacation  courses,  beginning  with  1871.  But  espe- 
cially of  late  years  this  practice  has  been  generalized 
and  attendance  has  been  greatly  broadened.  Yet  there 
are  a  certain  number  of  universities,  like  Yale  and 
Princeton,  which  have  not  adopted  it.  In  order  to  give 
an  idea  of  its  success,  it  suffices  to  indicate  the  numbers 
enrolled  1  at  this  session,  in  a  few  centres,  in  1915. 

Students  Students 

Columbia 5590  Cornell 1436 

Chicago 3984  Harvard 1250 

.California 3179  Illinois 938 

Wisconsin 2602  Minnesota 867 

Michigan 1594  Johns  Hopkins 350 

Attendance  at  these  sessions  is  quite  different  from 
that  of  the  academic  year.  It  consists  mostly  of  ma- 

1  These  students  do  not  figure  in  the  totals  given  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ters of  this  book  as  the  regular  population  of  the  universities. 

129 


130    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ture  men  and  women  —  of  whom  a  great  many  are 
graduates  —  who  come  to  complete  their  instruction 
in  a  definite  subject,  or  to  bring  it  into  the  current  of 
recent  progress.  Women  are  admitted,  even  in  uni- 
versities like  Harvard,  which  exclude  them  from  their 
regular  studies.  Physicians,  engineers,  teachers  of  sec- 
ondary or  primary  schools,  come  to  study  a  specialty. 
In  general  they  enroll  in  a  single  course  only,  for  which 
they  pay  a  rather  high  fee,  $10  to  $60,  according  to  the 
course,  at  Harvard.  This  course  may  include  numerous 
meetings,  and  the  session  lasts,  depending  on  the  uni- 
versity, from  six  to  eight  weeks,  in  July  and  August. 
The  ordinary  students  too  are  often  allowed  to  enroll 
in  one  of  these  courses,  and  they  can  thus  make  up  a 
deficiency  in  the  current  year,  or  hasten  the  end  of 
their  studies. 

It  is  an  extremely  practical  institution,  which  per- 
mits many  classes  of  persons  to  complete  their  educa- 
tion without  giving  up  their  ordinary  occupations. 
These  auditors,  more  serious  and  more  exacting  than 
the  ordinary  students,  have  bid  farewell  to  all  the 
frivolities  of  the  college.  In  certain  respects,  this  sum- 
mer session  is  nearer  to  higher  education  as  we  under- 
stand it,  than  that  of  the  normal  year. 

The  universities  make  many  exchanges  of  professors 
for  this  session.  Many  members  of  the  eastern  universi- 
ties go  to  Berkeley,  for  example. 

The  case  of  the  University  of  Chicago  is  rather  pecu- 
liar, and  deserves  to  be  specially  noted.  In  reality,  the 
University  of  Chicago  has  completely  suppressed  the 
vacation  period.  It  works  the  year  round  without 
stop,  and  the  term  unit  there  is  the  quarter,  instead  of 
the  half-year.  The  courses  are  consequently  combined. 


UNIVERSITIES  131 

Each  professor  should  have  three  quarters  of  work  and 
one  quarter  of  rest,  which  he  can  take  at  his  choice,  at 
one  season  or  another.  The  vacation  period  here  is 
simply  the  summer  quarter,  in  which  the  university 
offers  its  usual  resources.  That  is  the  cause  of  the  special 
success  of  these  vacation  courses  at  the  University  of 
Chicago.  Other  universities  should  be  tempted,  'it 
seems,  to  imitate  this  innovation,  which  moreover, 
allows  professors  to  be  free  at  periods  other  than  the 
usual  vacations. 

The  Summer  School  is  only  a  very  special  case  of 
university  extension  proper,  a  very  democratic  work, 
whose  program  is  immense  and  generous,  but  not  free 
from  whims  and  sometimes  from  a  demagogic  spirit. 
In  fact,  it  is  a  question  of  bringing  science  into  contact 
with  the  people,  of  allowing  men  and  women,  already 
absorbed  by  professional  occupations,  access  to  culture 
and  to  the  university  degrees,  and  above  all  to  make 
known  the  applications  of  science  to  the  masses,  so  as 
to  make  these  applications  come  into  use  and  thus  to 
hasten  progress. 

Before  the  universities  themselves  had  undertaken 
this  task,  in  which,  however,  the  English  universities 
had  preceded  them,  different  endeavors,  organized 
mostly  by  university  people,  had  begun  it,  in  the 
form  of  popular  lectures,  correspondence  work,  and 
the  organization  of  public  debates. 

Such  was  the  American  National  Lyceum,  founded 
in  1831,  in  which  men  like  Daniel  Webster  and  Emer- 
son actively  collaborated. 

Such,  above  all,  was  the  Chautauqua  Literary  and 
Scientific  Circle  (C.  L.  S.  C.).  Chautauqua  is  the  In- 


132    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

dian  name  of  a  lake  in  New  York  state,  on  whose 
shores,  in  1874,  an  enormous  work  of  popular  instruc- 
tion during  the  summer,  was  organized.  A  city  was 
created  there,  which  exists  only  during  the  few  weeks 
of  the  session,  and  which  then  attracts  more  than  10,000 
persons.  Almost  all  the  subjects  of  the  college  program, 
music,  etc.,  are  taught  there.  Aside  from  the  regular 
courses,  grouped  in  a  cycle  of  four  years,  there  are 
lectures,  public  debates,  concerts,  and  dramatic  per- 
formances. On  this  model  numerous  daughter  institu- 
tions have  been  created,  which  bear  the  same  name,  and 
Chautauqua  circuits,  a  group  of  lecturers,  actors,  mu- 
sicians, from  July  to  September,  make  a  tour  of  a 
series  of  towns  in  which  this  system  of  teaching  is  ap- 
plied, thus  reaching  a  large  public.1  The  name  Chau- 
tauqua stands  for  advanced  popular  instruction. 

Permanent  foundations,  like  the  Lowell  Institute  at 
Boston,  and  the  Peabody  Institute  at  Baltimore,  are 
also  for  popular  education  through  lectures  and  other 
means. 

After  various  vicissitudes,  extension  work  has  been 
firmly  entrenched  and  developed  in  the  universities 
for  twenty  years  past.  The  western  universities  have 
undertaken  it  on  the  vastest  scale.  A  few  years  ago  the 
University  of  Chicago  had  organized  it  at  Chicago  and 
elsewhere,  and  its  lecturers  radiated  into  twenty-eight 
states,  addressing  nearly  50,000  auditors.  The  old  uni- 
versities of  the  East  are  also  taking  part  in  this  move- 
ment. Harvard,  in  collaboration  with  the  neighboring 
institutions  (Boston  University,  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology,  Tufts  College,  Wellesley  College, 

1  See  H.  B.  Adams,  Monograph  on  Education  in  the  United  States.  (Paris 
Exposition,  1900),  Monograph  no.  16.  In  it  will  be  found  a  bibliography. 


UNIVERSITIES  133 

etc.),  has  created,  at  several  points  in  Boston,  regular 
courses,  parallel  to  those  of  the  university,  and  leading 
to  a  degree  of  Associate  in  Arts,  A. A.,  which  may  give 
access  to  the  Graduate  School  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and 
thus  lead  to  the  degree  of  Master. 

Extension  at  Columbia  shows  a  very  large  develop- 
ment, especially  in  the  form  of  evening  courses,  in  the 
university  buildings  or  in  various  places  in  New  York. 
The  catalogue  of  the  University  for  1912-13,  the  most 
recent  I  have  been  able  to  consult,  mentions  no  less 
than  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  extension  courses. 
Thanks  to  them,  it  is  possible,  while  busy  at  one's  pro- 
fession, to  do  the  work  equivalent  to  the  two  first  years 
of  college,  freshman  and  sophomore,  bit  by  bit,  and  to 
enter  the  university  later  in  a  regular  manner  to  finish 
the  course  for  the  Bachelor's  degree.  Besides,  certain 
of  these  courses  have  an  essentially  practical  character: 
thus  the  department  of  physics  of  the  university  gives 
courses  in  optics  for  opticians. 

In  the  state  universities,  extension  fills  an  enormous 
place.  It  is  one  of  the  means  of  justifying  in  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  the  huge  expenditures  made  for  higher 
education,  by  bringing  the  knowledge  which  they  can 
assimilate  or  which  may  be  useful  to  them,  in  contact 
with  the  masses  everywhere. 

The  forms  which  this  extension  takes  are  many. 
There  are  lectures  and  even  regular  courses,  in  the  chief 
cities  of  the  state,  and  even  in  unimportant  centres. 
To  this  end  they  bring  together,  in  each  of  these  cities, 
in  a  permanent  way,  appropriate  means  of  demonstra- 
tion, cinematographs,  projection  lanterns,  even  actual 
laboratories  on  a  small  scale,  and  also  a  nucleus  of  per- 
sons in  settlement  to  aid  the  traveling  lecturers.  Dis- 


134    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

cussions  are  also  specially  organized.  And  there  is 
correspondence  work.  The  applications  of  biology  to 
agriculture  are  among  the  subjects  which  are  the  most 
abundantly  represented,  and  that  is  explained  by  the 
importance  of  agriculture  in  the  state  universities  and 
no  less  by  the  political  influence  of  the  farmers  in  the 
agricultural  states  of  the  Middle  and  Far  West.  They 
organize  numerous  demonstrations  on  the  farms  them- 
selves; special  trains  travel  over  the  state,  carrying 
material  and  a  staff.  There  is  sometimes  a  rather 
demagogic  stage-setting  there,  but  apart  from  certain 
exaggerations,  it  remains  none  the  less  true  that  all  the 
applications  of  the  sciences  can  thus  be  brought  into 
direct  contact  with  the  farmers,  and  that  that  contrib- 
utes toward  facilitating  the  application  of  new  pro- 
cesses, and  toward  developing  the  taste  and  the  feeling 
for  progress  in  the  rural  population,  and  toward  restrain- 
ing very  much  their  spirit  of  routine.  Thanks  to  the 
prior  development  of  these  works,  they  have  been  able 
to  make  extremely  powerful  campaigns  of  social  interest, 
for  example,  against  alcoholism  or  tuberculosis. 

The  University  of  Wisconsin  is  one  of  those  which 
have  conceived  this  work  on  the  vastest  plan,  hoping 
to  spread  in  the  whole  community  which  surrounds  it 
the  spirit  which  animates  it,  and  the  practical  results 
of  science;  to  be  itself  in  some  sort  present  everywhere. 
Moreover,  it  receives  from  the  state  an  annual  sub- 
sidy of  $30,000,  for  extension  in  the  domain  of  agricul- 
ture alone. 

The  University  of  California  has  also  made  a  great 
work  of  its  extension,  and  one  which  it  tries  to  spread 
afar  into  numerous  cities.  It  has  created  within  itself, 
for  the  methodical  organization  of  this  work,  a  special 


UNIVERSITIES  135 

section  under  the  name  of  Department  of  University  Ex- 
tension, which  includes  five  bureaus :  one  for  the  organi- 
zation of  regular  courses  in  various  cities;  another  for 
correspondence  work  in  the  various  sciences;  a  third 
for  the  organization  of  lectures;  a  fourth  to  organize 
public  discussions,  which  acts  especially  through  the 
distribution  of  bulletins,  bibliographies,  programs,  etc. ; 
finally,  the  fifth,  called  Bureau  of  Municipal  References, 
popularizes  all  the  questions  of  hygiene  and  urban  or- 
ganization by  way  of  bulletins  or  inquiries.  In  1910, 
of  thirty-two  state  universities,  twenty-three  had  organ- 
ized extension,  and  fifteen  had  created  a  special  de- 
partment with  this  end,  as  we  have  just  seen  for  the 
University  of  California. 

The  Chautauqua  system  has  served  as  a  general 
model  for  all  these  enterprises.  You  see  how  much 
breadth  this  extension  work  has,  and  what  social  use- 
fulness it  may  possess;  also  how  it  draws  closer  to- 
gether the  university  and  society,  science  and  the  people. 
Still  more  than  the  existence  of  engineering  or  agri- 
cultural schools,  it  marks  the  utilitarian,  realistic,  and 
democratic  tendency  of  the  state  universities  in  the 
West.  In  spite  of  the  necessary  imperfections  in  this 
work,  which  is  still  in  its  beginnings,  it  does  open  the 
minds  of  the  masses  and  accelerates  progress. 


CHAPTER  XII 

GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS  ON  THE  ORGANIZATION 

OF  THE  UNIVERSITIES.    UNIVERSITIES 

AND  SOCIETY 

Insufficiency  of  preparation  by  secondary  education.  Broad  contact  of  the 
university  with  youth.  Evolution  of  the  universities.  R61e  of  the  state  uni- 
versities. Broadening  of  the  social  function  of  the  universities.  Contact 
with  society.  R61e  of  the  alumni.  Loyalty  and  donations.  Links  with  the 
university:  clubs. 

A^TER  having  passed  in  review  successively  the 
diverse  parts  and  the  diverse  modes  of  activity  of 
the  universities,  it  is  fitting  to  cast  a  general  glance  over 
them  and  to  bring  out  the  most  essential  facts  relative 
to  their  present  state  and  the  probable  course  of  their 
further  development.  Institutions,  as  Mr.  Eliot  has 
justly  said,  are  more  interesting  through  their  tenden- 
cies than  through  their  immediate  condition. 

The  notion  of  a  university,  in  all  the  great  countries, 
at  present  answers  a  double  object:  teaching  of  the 
higher  branches  of  human  knowledge  and  organization 
of  original  research,  in  order  to  push  back  still  further 
the  limits  of  our  knowledge.  By  unanimous  consent, 
it  is  this  second  mission  which  seems  the  more  essential 
and  that  which  is  truly  specific.  The  American  univer- 
sity world  constantly  affirms  this  conviction.  For  the 
moment,  however,  I  leave  it  one  side,  and  shall  return 
in  the  second  part  of  this  book  to  the  examination  of 
the  American  university  from  the  point  of  view  of  re- 
search. I  am  now  considering  it  only  from  the  point 

136 


UNIVERSITIES  137 

of  view  of  teaching.  For  after  all  that  is  the  funda- 
mental element.  Research  can  be  built  soundly  only 
on  the  foundation  of  solid  instruction. 

American  universities  have  a  very  great  power,  in 
that  they  attract  all  the  youth.  All  higher  education 
is  carried  on  within  them.  More  and  more  the  technical 
and  professional  schools  tend  to  come  back  into  them. 
Those  which  develop  brilliantly  outside,  like  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  are,  in  fact,  slightly 
specialized  but  still  true  universities.  Young  people 
enter  them  in  the  same  way  and  leave  under  the  same 
conditions.  The  fact  to  be  emphasized  is  that  the  doors 
of  all  these  establishments  are  wide  open  and  that  no 
one  of  them  gives  to  those  who  leave  it  a  monopoly  for 
certain  careers. 

The  universities  have  set  themselves  the  task  of  fur- 
nishing, for  all  branches  of  social  activity,  the  leaders 
whom  a  higher  education  ought  to  train.  Nothing 
hampers  them  in  this  program.  They  extend  it  more 
and  more,  and  having  liberty  and  autonomy,  free  com- 
petition is,  for  them,  an  active  stimulus  to  perfect  its 
realization. 

The  great  problem  of  teaching  which  they  have  to 
solve  at  present  is  to  conciliate  the  necessity  for  general 
education,  assuring  breadth  of  views  and  culture,  with 
that  of  the  technical  teaching  required  for  the  various 
careers.  This  problem  arises  in  all  countries.  What  are 
its  difficulties  and  its  special  modalities  in  the  United 
States? 

The  general  training  of  the  mind  ought  to  be  at  least 
well  prepared  by  secondary  education.  That  was  the 
virtue  of  our  classical  studies,  and  we  ought  to  conserve 


138    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

it  tenaciously,  while  taking  account  of  the  modifica- 
tions which  the  general  present  conditions  must  cause 
their  former  arrangement  to  undergo.  Secondary 
teaching  seems  to  me  to  be  the  weakest  point  of  the 
American  system  of  education.  The  student  who  comes 
out  of  the  high  school  at  eighteen  has  not  a  sufficient 
intellectual  training.  A  good  part  of  his  university 
studies  consists  in  finishing  his  secondary  studies.  A 
number  of  the  best  qualified  American  educators,  W.  R. 
Harper,  who  was  the  first  president  of  the  University 
of  Chicago  and  who  put  it  brilliantly  in  the  first  rank, 

D.  S.  Jordan,  who  did  the  same  for  Leland  Stanford, 

E.  J.  James,  who  is  now  President  of  the  University  of 
Illinois,  and  many  others,  recognize  that  in  a  general 
way  the  first  two  years  of  college  ought  to  be  put 
back  in  the  high  school.    The  real  problem  is  at  the 
same  time  to  have  the  young  Americans  finish  these 
studies  at  eighteen,  as  is  the  case  in  France  and  Ger- 
many.  Four  or  five  years  in  the  university  would  then 
suffice  to  complete  the  theoretical  education  and  give 
the    technical    education    necessary    for    the    various 
careers.    The  four  years  of  college,  from  eighteen  to 
twenty-two,  a  mere  preparation  for  further  technical 
studies,  are  evidently  too  long,  and  are  a  legacy  of  the 
past  which  cannot  continue.    Fundamentally,  in  the 
past,  the  college  was  simply  secondary  instruction. 

From  this  earlier  condition,  the  American  university 
has  kept,  to  its  advantage,  the  habit  of  a  close  and 
methodical  control  over  the  work  of  its  students.  It 
treats  them,  in  this  respect,  as  boys,  who  must  be  fol- 
lowed attentively,  not  as  mature  men  whom  it  can 
allow  to  act  at  their  own  will.  This  habit  has  been 
transmitted  to  all  its  new  parts.  The  chief  reproach 


UNIVERSITIES  139 

which  could  be  made  to  its  teaching,  in  a  general  way, 
is  that  it  is  not  sufficiently  impregnated  with  synthesis. 
Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson  made  this  criticism  by  declaring 
that  we  must  not  confound  information  and  education. 
The  American  student  is  not  left  enough  to  himself, 
and  led  to  reflect.  He  is  constantly  guided.  But  the 
theoretical  and  practical  instruction  offered  him  is  very 
well  coordinated,  and  when  he  really  has  the  taste  for 
work,  he  can  draw  excellent  results  from  it. 

One  of  the  points  which  seem  to  me  most  important 
in  the  evolution  of  the  American  universities  is  the 
place  which  the  applied  sciences  have  taken  in  it,  in  par- 
ticular, all  that  concerns  engineering  and  agriculture. 
The  universities  have  thereby  escaped  from  the  danger 
of  a  mandarinate.  Institutions  for  higher  education  (I 
leave  one  side  those  which  are  completely  specialized 
for  research)  do  not  seem  to  me  really  able  to  live,  in 
modern  society,  on  the  basis  of  the  speculative  sciences 
alone.  I  do  not  at  all  wish  to  belittle  the  latter,  and  the 
university  is  their  true  and  only  home,  but  they  need 
contact  with  reality  to  remain  living. 

It  is  sound  that  all  speculation  should  be  tempered 
by  consideration  of  the  real,  and  likewise  that  specula- 
tive teaching  should  be  in  the  same  surroundings  with 
practical  teaching.  I  believe,  therefore,  that  an  organi- 
zation like  that  of  the  modern  American  college,  which 
associates  the  pure  and  applied  sciences,  is  in  principle 
preferable  to  one  which,  like  our  own,  isolates  on  the 
one  hand  faculties  of  science,  and  on  the  other,  technical 
schools.  This  has  the  double  advantage  of  not  oppos- 
ing pure  science  and  applied  science,  and  of  not  creating 
institutions  which  cannot  really  recruit  their  own  num- 
bers and  which  end  fatally  in  a  mandarinate  system. 


140    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  university  which  is  both  theoretical  and  practical 
is  a  much  more  real  representation  of  society. 

Undoubtedly  the  Morrill  Act  was  the  great  ferment 
of  the  development  of  technical  and  agricultural  in- 
struction in  the  United  States.  In  the  state  universities, 
which  sprang  from  it,  this  teaching  at  first  took,  and  in 
many  cases  still  has,  a  too  radically  utilitarian  spirit, 
which  political  influences  tend  to  impose.  Little  by 
little,  however,  this  excess  of  utilitarianism  is  fated  to 
give  place  to  a  broader  conception.  The  existence  and 
spirit  of  the  private  universities  suffices  to  draw  the 
state  universities  into  the  path  of  general  culture.  In 
his  book  on  the  American  universities,  Mr.  Slosson 
justly  notes  the  immediate  and  large  influence  which 
the  creation  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  in  1890, 
exercised  over  the  state  university  of  Illinois,  by  bring- 
ing about  in  the  latter  a  great  development  of  the  in- 
struction in  pure  culture. 

The  dualism,  and  up  to  a  certain  point  the  rivalry, 
of  the  private  universities  and  the  state  universities, 
seems  to  me  an  extremely  favorable  circumstance.  The 
first  have  evidently  implanted,  and  till  now  represented 
true  intellectual  culture  in  the  United  States,  but  if 
they  had  been  alone,  they  would  perhaps  have  been  too 
narrowly  confined  within  their  classical  tradition,  and 
in  spite  of  everything,  in  a  too  narrowly  aristocratic 
form  of  education.  Is  not  that,  moreover,  the  story  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  up  to  a  recent  period?  The  ex- 
istence of  the  state  universities  has  undoubtedly  driven 
them  to  broaden  their  field  toward  the  modern  needs 
of  society.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  by  their  very 
qualities,  the  witness  which  obliges  the  raw  and  violently 
utilitarian  democracies  of  the  West  to  let  their  universi- 


UNIVERSITIES  141 

ties  evolve  toward  culture,  and  to  raise  their  standard. 
Under  the  influence  of  these  two  tendencies,  the  teach- 
ing of  the  applied  sciences  remains  practical,  and  little 
by  little  its  basic  level  is  raised. 

The  philosopher  Royce,  so  much  esteemed  by  every- 
one at  Harvard,  a  pure  logician  by  profession,  was  cer- 
tainly not  of  a  spirit  which  could  be  taxed  with  limited 
utilitarianism.  He  has  shown,  moreover,  from  the 
first  phases  of  the  present  war,  what  high  idealistic 
sentiments  animated  him.1  In  1909  at  the  Congress 
of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  at  Baltimore,2  he  characterized,  in  a  very  just 
and  very  profound  way,  in  my  opinion,  the  opposing 
tendencies  which  divided  the  opinions  of  American 
educators,  the  spirit  of  the  old  classical  college,  and  that 
of  the  modern  western  universities.  One  cannot  think, 
he  says,  of  opposing  radically  what  is  called  the  college 
to  the  technical  and  professional  studies.  "One  may 
protest  as  one  will  that  one  misuses  the  term  college 
when  one  talks  of  a  college  of  agriculture,  and  that  one 
ought  instead  to  speak  of  a  technical  school  of  training 
in  agriculture.  .  .  .  But  whatever  one  does  by  way  of 
formulation,  of  definition,  and  of  criticism,  the  state 
universities  will  continue  to  show  that  the  best  things 
that  you  can  do  for  the  young  men  who  are  to  be  trained 
in  the  humanities  is  to  keep  both  them  and  their  teach- 
ers in  pretty  close  contact  with  the  pupils  and  teachers 
who  are  engaged  in  technical  studies.  .  .  .  For  my 
part,"  he  says,  "I  suppose  one  of  the  notable  functions 
of  an  academic  institution  to  be  the  uniting  rather  than 

1  See,  in  particular,  his  speech,  "The  Duty  of  Americans  in  the  Present 
War,"  delivered  at  a  meeting  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  in  January,  1916. 

2  Science,  March  12,  1909,  pp.  401-407. 


142    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  further  sundering  of  the  various  more  or  less  learned 
activities  of  modern  life,  the  humanizing  of  engineers, 
and  the  preparation  of  the  young  followers  of  the 
humanities  for  some  practical  service  of  mankind." 

The  eastern  universities  must,  in  the  future,  accord- 
ing to  Royce,  broaden  their  plan  more  and  more,  after 
the  type  of  the  state  universities.  "The  centre  of 
gravity  of  our  future  American  academic  life  can  not 
always,  can  not  I  think  very  long,  remain  east  of  the 
Alleghenies.  Through  a  perfectly  natural  and  inevi- 
table evolution,  the  state  universities  of  the  Middle  West 
and  of  the  Far  West,  supported  as  they  are,  and  will  be, 
by  the  vast  resources  of  the  communities  from  which 
they  emanate,  and  guided  by  an  educational  ideal  ever 
being  perfected,  will  occupy,  in  one  or  two  generations, 
an  almost  central  place  in  American  academic  life." 

The  universities  are,  therefore,  according  to  this 
authoritative  forecast,  definitely  committed  to  that 
path,  in  which  their  role,  as  Mr.  E.  J.  James,  president 
of  the  University  of  Illinois  says,  is  "to  provide  for  the 
training  of  the  youth  of  the  country  for  all  the  careers 
requiring  an  extended  scientific  preparation,  based  on 
an  appropriate  liberal  education."  l  They  will  estab- 
lish new  specialized  colleges  for  new  needs.  "Any  pro- 
fession can  be  practised  rightly  only  on  a  scientific 
basis."  Therefore,  in  brief,  positive  science  becomes 
the  basis  of  preparation  for  practical  life  and  inspires 
all  the  activity  of  the  university.  The  university  is  to 
diffuse  this  spirit  of  positive  science  into  all  the  divi- 
sions of  society. 

This  movement  dates  from  yesterday;  yet  it  is  being 
accomplished  in  the  state  universities  with  a  speed  of 

1  Science. 


UNIVERSITIES  143 

realization  which  is  part  of  the  American  temperament, 
but  which  is  perhaps  not  yet  sufficiently  marked  by 
calmness.  "These  universities,"  says  Mr.  J.  M.  Bald- 
win,1 "are  the  field  on  which  all  sorts  of  pedagogical 
experiments  battle,  where  the  newest  and  boldest 
theories  are  put  in  practice,  and  where  'up-to-date' 
methods  receive  an  often  premature  application.  They 
seek  constantly  to  obtain  practical  results,  which  may 
impress  the  exacting  public  which  pays  the  taxes. 
Hence  there  is  a  veritable  whirlpool  of  ideas  and 
methods.  A  state  of  mind  characterized  by  the  urgent 
need  of  action,  but  which  at  the  same  time  lacks  as- 
surance and  confidence,  is  produced."  It  is  to  be  hoped, 
however,  that  equilibrium  will  be  established  little  by 
little.  In  any  case,  by  turning,  in  a  fashion  perhaps  at 
present  excessive,  in  a  utilitarian  direction,  the  uni- 
versities are  but  returning  to  the  tendencies  of  one  of 
the  founders  of  American  society,  whose  idealistic  in- 
tent, at  the  same  time,  we  cannot  deny  —  Benjamin 
Franklin. 

The  tradition  of  the  old  private  universities  of  the 
East  on  the  one  hand,  the  radical  and  utilitarian  spirit 
of  the  state  universities  on  the  other,  are  the  two  an- 
tagonistic elements  between  which  we  must  hope  to 
see  established  a  compromise  which  will  maintain  the 
rights  of  culture.  This  result  would  be  much  more 
surely  gained  if  the  student  arrived  at  the  university 
already  better  trained  and  more  cultivated. 

The  universities  have  another  solid  contact  with 
society,  one  of  a  traditional  and  sentimental  order,  and 
in  fact  of  rather  aristocratic  tendencies.  It  is  the  at- 

1  Foi  et  Vie,  Cahier  B,  1917,  p.  15. 


144    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

tachment  which  links  every  American  to  the  institu- 
tion, college  or  university,  through  which  he  has  passed. 
This  loyalty  is  a  characteristic  of  their  way  of  life  in 
general,  but  it  has  a  special  importance  for  the  private 
universities,  for  on  it,  in  fact,  their  whole  existence  is 
based.  Its  force  and  prevalence  are  one  of  the  undeni- 
able marks  of  an  idealistic  side  in  the  American  mental- 
ity. And  of  course  the  universities  are  carefully  on  the 
watch  to  maintain  it.  It  rests  on  the  solidarity  and 
comradeship  which  college  life  establishes  between  the 
students,  and  which  in  some  degree  identifies  their 
memories  of  youth  in  an  agreeable  form  with  the  in- 
stitution through  which  they  have  passed. 

The  university  becomes  the  centre  of  a  vast  family, 
so  much  the  more  powerful,  the  more  numerous  it  is.1 
It  deserves  the  name  of  Alma  Mater,  and  its  foster 
children,  its  alumni,  consider  it  a  duty  to  provide  for 
its  needs,  after  having  been  educated  by  it.  Gifts  to 
universities  have  thus  become  a  normal  element  of  the 
civic  activity  of  the  wealthy  class.  They  suffice  to  as- 
sure, not  only  their  existence,  but  their  development, 
and  often  even  with  an  excessive  luxury.  They  permit 
vast  conceptions  and  rapid  realizations  to  those  who 
hold  in  their  hands  the  destinies  of  a  university.  Ex- 
amples abound. 

At  Princeton,  my  colleague  W.  B.  Scott,  the  eminent 
paleontologist,  walking  with  me  across  the  campus, 
showed  me  with  pride  the  seventy-five  large  buildings 
which  stand  there,  magnificent  laboratories,  sumptuous 
halls,  dormitories,  all  built  with  gifts  of  alumni. 

When  Harvard  built  its  magnificent  medical  school 
in  Boston,  a  considerable  sum  was  lacking  to  erect  one 

1  Cf.  Table  p.  269,  col.  6. 


UNIVERSITIES  145 

of  the  five  large  buildings  which  compose  it.  They 
went  and  explained  the  situation  to  the  banker,  Pier- 
pont  Morgan,  who,  after  having  listened  and  reflected, 
replied  simply,  "All  right,  sirs,"  and  promised  the  sum. 
It  was  a  matter  of  more  than  a  million  dollars.  Those 
are  solutions  which  have  nothing  of  bureaucratic  slow- 
ness and  red  tape. 

In  April,  1912,  a  young  graduate  of  Harvard,  Harry 
Elkins  Widener,  perished  on  the  Titanic,  at  the  same 
time  with  his  father.  His  mother,  who  escaped  drown- 
ing, gave  the  university  the  collection  of  books  which 
her  son,  an  ardent  bibliophile,  had  gathered.  The  uni- 
versity was  at  that  time  planning  to  rebuild  its  li- 
brary, which  was  too  small  for  the  six  or  seven  hundred 
thousand  volumes  it  contained,  and  above  all,  abso- 
lutely insufficient  for  the  future.  Mrs.  Widener  easily 
allowed  herself  to  be  persuaded  to  associate  the  memory 
of  her  son  with  this  reconstruction.  She  took  entire 
charge  of  it;  her  architect  executed  the  monument,  on 
land  designated  and  according  to  indications  furnished 
by  the  university.  The  latter  did  not  even  know  —  at 
least  officially  —  what  it  cost  (it  is  said  between 
$2,000,000  and  $3,000,000).  The  cornerstone  was  laid 
in  June,  1913.  The  library  was  dedicated  in  June, 
1915,  at  Commencement,  and  completely  installed  for 
the  opening  of  the  following  academic  year.  There 
also,  no  administrative  formality  intervened  to  tram- 
mel the  gift  nor  to  retard  the  execution. 

Quite  near  Boston,  Tufts  College  is  an  institution  of 
moderate  importance,  whose  buildings  rise  on  the 
slopes  and  summit  of  a  grassy  hill,  the  view  from  which 
is  magnificent.  The  biological  laboratories  occupy  a 
building  constructed  with  funds  given  by  an  alumnus 


146    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

whose  career  was  not  precisely  intellectual,  Barnum, 
the  proprietor  of  the  famous  circus. 

And  these  examples  could  be  multiplied.  There  is 
scarcely  a  week  in  which  Science  does  not  record  one  or 
several  important  donations.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
usual  ways  of  perpetuating  a  memory. 

These  last  months  too,  we  have  had  a  touching  ex- 
ample of  it,  and  one  which  is  very  dear  to  us.  Before 
America  became  our  ally,  more  than  one  university  was 
represented  on  our  front  by  numerous  alumni,  Harvard 
by  several  hundreds.  Last  spring  more  than  thirty  of 
these  young  Americans  had  already  fallen  gloriously. 
Among  them  the  aviator  Victor  Emmanuel  Chapman 
was  killed,  June  23,  1916,  at  Verdun,  in  an  aerial  com- 
bat. To  perpetuate  his  memory,  a  group  of  subscribers 
have  founded  a  fellowship  at  Harvard,  in  his  name, 
which  will  be  awarded  to  a  French  student. 

If  you  wish  to  appreciate  the  breadth  which  these 
gifts  take,  and  what  a  factor  they  are  in  the  development 
of  the  universities,  you  have  only  to  consult  the  Re- 
port of  the  Commissioner  of  Education.  Here  are  some 
figures  taken  from  that  for  1913-14. 

The  total  of  gifts  made  to  the  universities  and  col- 
leges during  that  year,  and  coming  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  federal  bureau  of  education,  reaches  $29,927,137, 
and  that  is  not  an  exceptional  figure,  for  the  total  for 
the  years  1901-14  is  over  $300,000,000. 

The  table  on  page  147  indicates,  in  dollars,  the  figures 
for  a  few  universities. 

These  figures  are  evidently  rather  variable  from  one 
year  to  another.  But  they  are  always  considerable. 
I  will  add  that  the  gifts  received  in  1913-14  exceeded 
$100,000  in  forty-five  universities,  and  colleges,  and 


UNIVERSITIES  147 

the   total   for   these   establishments    was   more   than 
$20,000,000. 


Gifts 

University 

Total 
Receipts 

Receipts 
from 
Tuition 

Income 
from 
Endowment 

For 
Current 
Expenses 

For  New 
Equip- 
ment 

For 
Capital 

Total 
Gifts 

Harvard 

$4,287,185 

$895,497 

$1,344,904 

$256,239 

$253,914 

$1,379,356 

$1,889,509 

Yale 

2,600,619 

742,510 

809,171 

138,390 

125,000 

756,457 

1,019,847 

Columbia 

6,685,869 

1,017,137 

1,138,875 

468,607 

114,936 

680,647 

1,264,190 

Chicago 

3,332,151 

743,598 

1,082,514 

27,966 

665,211 

626,803 

1,519,986 

Cornell 

6,790,260 

535,346 

610,208 

8,623 

3,000 

4,364,486 

4,376,103 

J.  Hopkins 

738,049 

121,130 

244,210 

19,420 

10,681 

118,909 

149,010 

The  universities  are  evidently  watchful  to  maintain 
the  bonds  which  unite  them  to  their  alumni.  They  in- 
terest them  in  their  life  by  giving  them,  as  has  been 
seen,  an  important  part  in  their  government.  In  most 
cases,  indeed,  the  trustees  are  elected  by  the  alumni. 
The  ceremonies  which  end  the  academic  year  are  an 
occasion  to  bring  back  a  large  number  of  them  to  the 
campus,  and  to  awaken  their  interest  not  only  for  the 
university  as  they  knew  it,  but  as  it  is  changing. 

There  are  anniversary  dates  on  which  the  tradition 
of  the  return  of  the  classes  is  particularly  observed,  for 
example,  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  after  graduation. 
And  these  rites  bring  with  them  a  gift  to  the  university. 
At  Harvard  it  is  now  a  formal  rule  that  at  the  twenty- 
fifth  anniversary  of  graduation  each  class  gives  to  the 
Alma  Mater  a  sum  of  $100,000,  which  thus  becomes  an 
item  of  the  ordinary  budget. 

University  solidarity  borrows  from  American  cus- 
toms another  more  constant  and  no  less  solid  link,  the 
club,  which  is  the  most  living,  and  perhaps  the  most 
general  form  of  association  of  American  life. 


148    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

We  have  already  seen  the  perhaps  exaggerated  r61e 
which  clubs  play  in  the  life  of  the  student.  Did  we  not 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  college  itself,  especially 
where  its  traditions  have  been  best  preserved,  was  only 
a  country  club,  where  one  spent  four  as  agreeable  years 
as  one  could?  l 

But  it  is  through  the  clubs  of  former  students  that 
each  establishment  maintains  and  consolidates  its 
family  of  alumni.  Thus  there  are  Harvard  clubs  in  all 
the  great  centres  of  America,  and  even  wherever  there 
is  a  very  small  group  of  Harvard  men.  Honolulu  has 
one,  Paris  also;  the  old  American  university  gives  us 
this  example  of  solidarity  and  fidelity.  In  New  York 
and  in  Boston,  where  the  Harvard  men  are  numerous, 
these  clubs  have  each  four  or  five  thousand  members, 
and  have  been  able  to  house  themselves  in  a  comfort- 
able residence,  an  animated  and  complete  centre  of 
Harvard  life.  Yale,  Princeton,  Cornell,  likewise  have 
their  individual  clubs  in  New  York.  The  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  of  Boston  has  its  own  there  too. 

In  the  majority  of  cases,  the  clubs  of  the  various  uni- 
versities in  the  same  city,  are  federated  in  a  general 
University  Club,  in  order  to  have  a  luxurious  material 
equipment,  each  one  cultivating  separately  there  its 
own  memories. 

Thanks  to  these  clubs,  there  is  scarcely  a  striking 
event  in  the  career  of  the  university  in  which  its  alumni, 
even  the  most  distant,  are  not  associated,  often  in  a  very 
direct  manner.  We  had  a  particularly  significant  ex- 

1  The  club  also  cements  solidarity  in  tjhe  life  of  the  professors,  who  meet, 
if  only  at  lunch  time,  in  a  Faculty  Club,  present,  under  one  or  another 
name,  in  all  the  universities.  All  those  who  have  taught  at  Harvard  keep  a 
pleasant  memory  of  the  Colonial  Club. 


UNIVERSITIES  149 

ample  of  it  in  June,  1916,  when  the  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology  celebrated  its  transfer  to  its  new 
and  magnificent  buildings  on  the  bank  of  Charles 
River.  There  were  festivities  of  many  kinds,  to  which 
each  of  the  classes  contributed  its  individual  mani- 
festation, and  they  ended,  as  usual,  with  a  banquet  in 
Boston,  of  which  more  than  1,500  partook.  In  thirty- 
four  cities  of  the  United  States,  from  New  York  to  New 
Orleans,  and  to  the  great  centres  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
Los  Angeles,  San  Francisco,  Seattle,  at  the  same  hour, 
the  Tech  Clubs  were  also  gathered  at  banquets.  At  the 
hour  for  the  toasts,  the  banqueters  in  all  these  cities 
could  have  the  illusion  of  being  at  the  Boston  celebra- 
tion itself.  With  a  telephone  receiver  at  the  ear,  they 
were  actually  able  to  listen  to  the  speeches  delivered 
there  and  in  Boston  likewise,  each  of  the  banqueters 
could  hear  the  greetings  which  were  sent  one  after  an- 
other from  the  various  cities.  The  solidarity  of  the 
alumni,  in  this  gathering  of  engineers,  utilized  the  most 
modern  means  of  manifesting  itself. 

And  lastly  periodicals  and  reviews,  Alumni  Bulletin, 
Alumni  Weekly,  Graduates9  Magazine,  etc.,  at  regular 
intervals,  remind  the  alumni  individually  of  university 
affairs,  and  keep  them  in  the  current  of  all  the  great  or 
small  events  which  concern  them;  put  them  in  touch 
with  the  plans  formed,  the  material  needs;  in  a  certain 
measure  submit  these  projects  for  their  approval  and  at 
the  same  time  ask  them  for  the  means  for  their  realiza- 
tion. That  is  a  heritage  of  English  customs,  and  an  im- 
portant employment  of  private  initiative,  to  which  we 
cannot  refuse  our  sincere  and  admiring  approbation. 

The  alumni,  then,  bring  enormous  support  to  the 
universities,  and  at  the  same  time  exercise  an  undeni- 


150    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

able  influence  over  them.  That  does  not  mean  that 
this  influence  is  always  beneficent.  In  their  affection 
for  Alma  Mater,  preoccupations  of  an  intellectual  order 
are  not  the  most  active.  The  mass  of  the  alumni,  es- 
pecially the  most  of  those  who  can  make  sumptuous 
gifts,  are  not  scholars,  and  the  memories  of  their  col- 
lege life  are  chiefly  those  which  made  these  years  a 
"good  time,"  for  them.  It  is  the  joyous,  sporting,  and 
worldly  side  of  college  life  whose  tradition  the  alumni 
are  anxious  to  maintain.  The  university  must  com- 
promise more  or  less  with  these  tendencies,  and  devote 
a  part  of  the  resources  which  come  to  it,  to  increasing 
the  luxury  and  agreeableness  of  the  college,  before 
thinking  of  the  scientific  needs.  The  universities  which, 
like  Johns  Hopkins,  have  for  themselves  only  the  auster- 
ity of  the  intellectual  task,  do  not  attract  a  crowd  of 
generous  alumni. 

That  is  nothing  more  than  purely  human,  and  the 
fact  is  that  the  universities  still  find  easily  the  means  of 
realizing  their  most  strictly  scientific  desiderata,  either 
among  their  alumni,  or  among  very  rich  men,  who  have 
no  debt  of  gratitude  toward  them.  One  can  find  no 
more  noble  use  of  a  fortune  than  to  devote  it,  as  Leland 
Stanford  did,  to  founding  a  great  university,  in  memory 
of  his  son.  Andrew  Carnegie  and  J.  D.  Rockefeller, 
merely  to  mention  their  names,  and  one  might  add 
many  others,  figure  among  the  generous  benefactors 
of  numerous  universities.  Mr.  Carnegie  has  been  guided 
in  all  his  largesses,  by  an  undoubted  and  ardent  desire 
to  contribute,  through  the  progress  of  education  in  all 
its  stages,  to  the  amelioration  of  human  conditions. 
Mr.  Rockefeller,  in  1910,  making  a  last  donation  l  to 

1  Mr.  Rockefeller's  gifts  to  this  university  have  reached  in  all,  $25,000,000. 


UNIVERSITIES  151 

the  University  of  Chicago,  of  which  he  was  the  princi- 
pal founder,  announced  at  the  same  time  that  he  was 
withdrawing  his  representatives  from  the  council  of  her 
trustees,  and  he  added:  "I  am  acting  from  an  initial 
and  lasting  conviction  that  this  great  institution,  being 
the  property  of  the  people,  should  be  controlled,  con- 
ducted and  sustained  by  them.  I  have  merely  had  the 
privilege  of  cooperating  in  the  generous  efforts  made  for 
its  building."  The  council  of  trustees,  in  accepting  this 
last  gift,  declared  that  Mr.  Rockefeller  had  never  sought 
to  use  his  influence,  that  he  had  never  intervened  for  the 
nomination,  promotion  or  recall  of  the  professors,  and 
that  he  had  never  made  representations  in  respect  to 
views  expressed  by  them,  even  on  religious  questions, 
on  which  doctrines  in  formal  opposition  with  his  well- 
known  views  had  been  formulated. 

It  may  have  happened  that  donors  have  sometimes 
applied  a  certain  pressure  to  the  universities.  One  may 
regret,  not  without  reason,  that  individual  wealth 
should  be  able  to  exercise  so  great  an  influence.  But  in 
my  opinion  it  would  be  unjust  to  deny  to  this  great 
movement  of  liberalities,  from  which  American  higher 
education  profits,  a  broad  foundation  of  idealism  and 
public  spirit.  After  the  account  is  cast  up,  we  must 
sincerely  admire  it,  and  consider  very  fortunate  those 
customs  which  interest  and  associate  in  the  life  and 
management  of  the  university,  all  those  who  have  passed 
through  its  ranks,  or  whom  fortune  has  favored. 


PART  II 
SCIENTIFIC  RESEARCH 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SCIENTIFIC  RESEARCH  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY 

Its  conditions.  Selection  of  the  personnel,  and  the  sciences.  Mr.  J.  McK. 
Cattell's  statistics  and  the  distribution  of  the  best  American  scientists.  The 
scientific  equipment:  laboratories  and  libraries.  The  relation  of  research 
and  teaching. 

THE  first  part  of  this  book  has  shown  us  the  Ameri- 
can universities  under  extremely  varied  aspects, 
yet  there  is  one  which  we  have  barely  touched  upon. 
That  is  the  one  which  it  is  everywhere  agreed  to  con- 
sider essential,  scientific  research.  We  shall  consider 
it  now. 

And  first,  American  intellectuals,  especially  scien- 
tific men,  but  also  engineers,  unanimously  proclaim  that 
of  all  the  aims  of  the  university,  this  is  the  supreme 
aim.  The  universities  must,  before  all  else,  cause  sci- 
ence to  progress.  "Research  is  the  nervous  system  of 
the  university,"  said  Professor  C.  M.  Coulter  of  Chi- 
cago, in  a  toast  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing, 
April  15,  1916,  at  the  banquet  of  the  Philosophical 
Society.  "It  stimulates  and  dominates  every  other 
function.  It  makes  the  atmosphere  of  the  university, 
even  in  the  undergraduate  division,  differ  from  that  of 
a  college.  It  affects  the  whole  attitude  toward  subjects 
and  toward  life.  This  devotion,  not  merely  to  the  ac- 
quisition of  knowledge,  but  chiefly  to  the  advancement 
of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  is  the  peculiar  possession 
of  universities.  .  .  .  There  must  be  an  increasing  de- 
termination to  permit  no  other  function  to  diminish  its 

155 


156    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

opportunity,  and  to  allow  no  method  of  administration 
to  depress  its  spirit."  l 

Research  is,  then,  undoubtedly  the  ideal  of  the  teach- 
ing staff  of  the  American  universities,  and  we  are  to 
examine  in  what  measure  it  is  realized.  We  have  seen 
how  vast  and  complex  these  universities  are,  and  to  how 
many  divergent  needs  and  traditions  they  respond. 
They  are  quite  evidently  not  planned  for  research, 
which  has  made  a  place  for  itself  in  them  recently.  Is 
it  favored  or  hindered  by  the  general  surroundings? 
Voices  calling  for  a  better  adaptation  are  not  lacking. 

They  regret  the  large  place  which  the  college  and 
college  spirit  still  have.  The  professors  are  overbur- 
dened with  courses,  too  much  absorbed  by  pedagogical 
preoccupations  and  the  routine  work  which  the  students 
give  them.  Neither  sufficient  freedom  of  mind,  nor 
time,  remains  for  them  to  devote  themselves  calmly  to 
serious  researches.  The  teaching  itself  undergoes  the 
influence  of  the  inferior  level  on  which  the  students  are 
who  come  to  the  university.  The  college  life  weighs  too 
heavily  on  the  university.  That  is  what  Mr.  D.  S. 
Jordan,  former  president  of  Leland  Stanford,  expressed 
in  a  striking  manner,  in  an  address  given  at  Yale,2  in 
contrasting  Yale  College  with  Yale  University.  "We 
must,"  he  said,  "choose  between  the  two  conceptions: 
one,  that  of  the  college,  a  school  for  boys,  with  its  foot- 
ball team,  its  glee  club,  and  its  crews;  the  other,  that 
of  the  university,  a  school  for  men;  and  come  out  of 
the  present  transitional  state.  The  glory  of  Yale,  until 
now,  has  been  Yale  College;  that  of  the  future  must  be 
Yale  University;  but  the  two  things  in  the  same  yard, 

1  Science,  June  9,  1916,  pp.  810-812. 

2  Science,  March  19,  1909. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  157 

with  the  same  teachers,  the  same  discipline,  this  con- 
dition can  never  be  a  finality." 

"The  American  university,"  says,  moreover,  Mr.  A. 
G.  Mayer,  "today  remains  a  hypertrophied  college, 
and  the  conservation  of  the  past  is  its  ideal,  rather  than 
the  revelation  of  the  new  truth.  The  professor  in  it  is 
more  and  more  overwhelmed  by  the  pedagogical  work. 
Since  1880  the  universities  have  experienced  an  enor- 
mous material  development,  but  disproportionate  to 
their  intellectual  development.  Large  buildings  and 
fine  lawns  may  be  necessary  and  are  certainly  desir- 
able, but  a  university  consists,  first  of  all,  in  a  staff  of 
eminent  professors." 

"The  American  university,"  Mr.  Schurman,  the  presi- 
dent of  Cornell,  says,  further,  from  the  same  point  of 
view,  "is  still  in  the  state  of  expectancy  or  of  promise. 
Its  future  is  to  be  a  great  school  of  research." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  experience  of  Johns  Hopkins 
and  of  Clark  University,  show  the  almost  insurmount- 
able difficulties  in  establishing,  independently  of  the 
state,  a  university  which  shall  be  exclusively  a  school  of 
advanced  studies,  and  the  American  democracy  does 
not  yet  like  to  subsidize  institutions  not  having,  at 
least  in  large  part,  immediate  usefulness. 

It  is  therefore  very  certain  that  the  present  situation 
carries  much  that  is  unfavorable,  but  we  must  not  fail 
to  recognize  the  real  advantages:  first,  that  solid  foun- 
dation in  society  which  it  gives  to  the  university, 
whether  through  the  college  traditions  and  the  active 
sympathies  of  the  wealthy  classes,  or  through  the  de- 
velopment of  the  university  toward  applied  teaching 
and  contact  with  all  the  realities  of  modern  life.  A 
university  which  is  entirely  devoted  to  pure  science  is 


158    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

isolated  in  its  tendencies  from  the  surrounding  world, 
and  does  not  enroll  enough  students. 

Pure  science,  and  especially  research,  can  be  the 
work  of  only  a  small  number  of  superior  and  disinter- 
ested intellects;  these  can  be  recruited  with  certainty 
only  by  a  very  wide  selection.  This  selection  gives  good 
results  when  it  is  operated  on  large  masses  of  individ- 
uals; it  works  badly  if  one  operates  on  only  a  small 
number,  as  is  the  case  every  time  that  a  faculty  has 
limited  itself  to  sciences  purely  speculative  and  without 
applications. 

Therefore,  without  giving  the  impression  that  it  is 
perfect,  I  believe  that  in  principle  the  actual  constitu- 
tion of  the  American  university,  is  not  bad.  It  offers  a 
very  broad  foundation,  on  which  by  working  properly, 
you  are  in  excellent  condition  for  selecting  the  chosen 
few  who  will  cause  our  knowledge  to  progress.  What  I 
personally  saw  at  Harvard  confirms  me  in  this  opinion. 
Evidently  the  selection  is  not  easy  to  make,  and  one 
does  not  readily  hit  upon  men  of  genius.  "The  making 
of  a  Darwin"  is  the  title  which  Mr.  D.  S.  Jordan  gives 
to  one  of  his  presidential  addresses  to  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,1  in  which 
he  proves,  in  brief,  that  the  universities  of  his  coun- 
try do  not  yet  have  the  best  recipe.  For  men  of  genius, 
the  only  useful  and  practical  recipe,  which  is  not  too 
ambitious,  is  that  the  conditions  of  the  environment 
shall  not  stifle  them  automatically.  Systems  of  edu- 
cation should  avoid  this  major  defect,  and  for  the  rest, 
limit  themselves  to  getting  the  best  results  from  the 
average. 

In  brief,  moreover,  in  thirty  years,  which  is  a  short 

1  Science,  December  30,  1910,  pp.  927-942. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  159 

time,  the  American  universities  have  realized,  from  the 
purely  scientific  point  of  view,  enormous  progress.  The 
number  of  doctorates,  if  it  is  not  a  datum  of  an  abso- 
lutely decisive  value,  is  nevertheless  an  important  in- 
dication.1 Apprenticeship  in  research,  through  the 
doctorate,  seems  to  me  equally  satisfactory.  Evidently, 
as  Mr.  Castle  observes,  the  fabrication  of  theses  fur- 
nishes only  a  rather  feeble  result  for  the  general  progress 
of  science,  but  even  there,  selection  continues  to  oper- 
ate, and  can  give  only  at  rare  intervals  a  really  superior 
subject. 

It  is  rather  through  the  examination  of  the  personnel 
that  one  can  appreciate  the  value  of  the  universities 
from  the  scientific  point  of  view.  And  it  is  not  doubtful 
that  this  personnel,  on  the  whole,  makes  a  big  effort 
toward  research;  that  in  thirty  years  it  has  improved 
enormously;  and  that  today  there  exist  several  great 
scientific  centres  full  of  vitality  and  independent  of  one 
another.  There  are  six  hundred  colleges;  there  cannot 
be  so  many  centres  of  discoveries.  Only  a  very  small 
number  can  be  set  up.  By  placing  oneself  at  the  point 
of  view  of  research,  one  can  rather  easily  determine  the 
most  important  universities.  They  are,  moreover, 
those  which  are  in  a  general  way  the  most  prosperous. 

The  absolute  autonomy  of  the  universities,  the  ma- 
terial interest  which  they  have  in  possessing  as  dis- 
tinguished a  staff  as  possible,  the  freedom  which  the 
presidents  enjoy  in  supplying  it,  result  in  the  selection 
being  made,  for  the  most  powerful  universities,  at  least 
in  a  large  measure,  according  to  the  real  value  of  the 
individuals,  and  in  this  selection,  scientific  works  come 
in  for  a  rather  large  share.  Competition  between  the 

1  Cf .  tables,  pp.  96  and  97. 


160    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

universities  causes  them  automatically  to  hunt  for  the 
right  man  for  the  right  place. 

Mr.  J.  McK.  Cattell,  professor  of  psychology  at  Co- 
lumbia, in  his  review,  Science  —  which  very  faithfully 
reflects  American  university  life,  and  particularly  the 
scientific  life  —  has  published  an  interesting  series  of 
studies  on  the  university  teaching  profession,  which  are 
distinguished  by  a  democratic  and  very  independent 
spirit.  He  has  tried  to  apply  statistical  methods  — 
perhaps  sometimes  with  too  much  excess  in  detail  — 
to  the  appraisal  of  individual  merit,  and  to  draw  from 
the  results  obtained,  judgments  on  the  university  en- 
vironment and  indications  concerning  the  reforms  to  be 
applied  to  it.  He  has  thus  sought  to  determine  the 
thousand  most  distinguished  scientists  of  the  United 
States,1  and,  these  once  known,  to  deduce  a  series  of 
conclusions  from  their  rise,  from  their  distribution  in 
the  various  universities,  from  the  conditions  of  their 
career,  etc.  He  puts  into  this  thousand  a  number  of 
representatives  of  each  science  proportional  to  the  num- 
ber of  workers  in  that  science.2  For  each  science,  he 
has  asked  ten  leading  representatives,  specialists  of  au- 
thority, to  classify  the  workers  in  their  specialty  in 
order  of  merit.  This  plebiscite  related  to  2481  names. 
In  each  science,  the  lists  furnished  have  been  combined 
in  a  general  list,  according  to  the  averages,  and  applying 
the  correction  for  error  to  the  interpretation  of  the  results. 

Of  the  1000  names  obtained,  126  are  those  of  persons 
born   outside  the  United  States.     The  states   which 

1  J.  McK.  Cattell,  A  Statistical  Study  of  American  Men  of  Science,  Sci- 
ence, N.  s.,  vol.  xxiv,  2d  half  of  1906,  and  vol.  xxxii,  2d  half  of  1910. 

2  The  numbers  are  as  follows:  Chemistry  175,  Physics  and  Zoology  150, 
Botany  and  Geology  100,  Mathematics  80,  Pathology  60,  Astronomy  and 
Psychology  50,  Physiology  40,  Anatomy  25,  Anthropology  20. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  161 

furnish  the  most  are  Massachusetts  (134),  New  York 
(183),  Pennsylvania  (66),  Ohio  (75),  Connecticut  (40). 
The  percentage  in  relation  to  population  is  four  times 
higher  in  Massachusetts  than  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
fifty  times  more  than  in  many  southern  states.  Let  us 
see  especially  how  these  men  are  distributed  in  the 
diverse  universities.  Harvard  had  66  in  its  personnel, 
Columbia  60,  the  University  of  Chicago  39,  Cornell  33, 
Johns  Hopkins  30,  Berkeley,  Cal.  27,  Yale  26,  Ann 
Arbor,  Mich.  20,  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology 
19,  Madison,  Wis.  18,  The  University  of  Pennsylvania 
17,  Leland  Stanford  16,  Princeton  14,  etc.  About  500 
of  the  names  are  grouped  in  18  establishments;  237 
took  their  fundamental  studies  at  Harvard,  171  at 
Johns  Hopkins,  93  at  Yale,  78  at  Columbia,  74  at 
Cornell.1 

By  noting  the  position  of  the  various  names  on  the 
list,  one  can  calculate  the  relative  value  of  the  whole  of 
the  staff  for  each  science  in  the  various  universities  or 
scientific  establishments,  and  Mr.  McK.  Cattell  has 
arrived  at  the  classification  which  the  table  on  p.  162 
summarizes  (in  which  each  number  is  the  place  occupied 
by  the  corresponding  establishment). 

Here  again,  only  a  very  relative  importance  must  be 
attached  to  these  figures.  But  on  the  whole  they  indi- 
cate in  which  institutions  the  diverse  sciences  are,  in 
a  general  way,  best  represented.  It  puts  in  evidence, 
likewise  in  a  general  manner,  the  universities  which  are 
at  the  head:  Harvard,  Columbia,  Chicago,  Yale,  Johns 
Hopkins,  Cornell,  and  among  the  state  universities, 

1  In  weighing  these  figures  we  must  take  account  of  the  fact  that  certain 
universities  are  still  very  recent.  Chicago  and  Leland  Stanford,  for  example, 
have  only  been  in  existence  for  twenty-five  years. 


162    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

those  of  Wisconsin,  California,  and  Michigan.  But  we 
must  not  seek  too  precise  a  meaning  in  each  of  these 
figures.  Moreover,  being  based  on  persons,  this  meaning 


Mathematics 

, 

>> 

Astronomy 

! 

>, 

1 
3 

Physiology 

J 

Pathology 

Anthropology 

Psychology 

Harvard.  .    .  . 

2 

1 

4 

3 

3 

1 

1 

1 

2 

1 

3 

2 

Chicago 

1 

5 

10 

1 

4 

4 

3 

5 

10 

S 

5 

3 

6 

7 

6 

10 

2 

7 

4 

2 

1 

Yale 

4 

2 

5 

2 

6 

2 

Johns  Hopkins 

4 

5 

8 

10 

3 

1 

9 

Cornell  

7 

8 

6 

7 

5 

5 

9 

4 

Pennsylvania.  .  . 

9 

9 

7 

Princeton  

6 

3 

10 

Michigan  

10 

3 

6 

6 

Illinois       

5 

8 

Wisconsin  

8 

9 

8 

5 

7 

8 

5 

10 

8 

California  

2 

7 

5 

Stanford  

10 

9 

6 

7 

9 

Clark  

8 

3 

Mass.  Inst.  Technology  

9 

7 

1 

Bureau  Standings  

2 

Department  of  Agriculture  .  . 

10 

3 

3 

8 

Carnegie  Institution  

9 

4 

9 

Smithsonian  Institute  

6 

9 

1 

Geological  Survey  

1 

N.  Y.  Botanical  Gardens  

2 

Am.  Mus.  Natural  History.  . 

4 

6 

Rockefeller  Institute  

4 

5 

Wistar  Institution  

4 

would  be  only  momentary.  Besides,  particular  condi- 
tions intervene  for  each  science;  such  is  the  existence 
of  great  observatories  for  astronomy. 

As  far  as  regards  zoology,  this  table  seems  to  me  to 
represent  the  reality  in  the  measure  in  which  it  can  do 
so,  granted  that  each  personality  disappears  behind  the 
group  of  all  those  who  compose  the  department.  For 
this  science,  and  also  for  general  biology,  I  will  add  that 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  163 

the  American  universities  are  actually  in  very  good 
condition;  that  they  have  produced,  of  late  years,  many 
very  remarkable  works.  Those  of  Mr.  Edmund  Wilson, 
of  Columbia,  on  cytology,  for  example,  are  of  the  first 
order.  From  them  has  come  the  determination  of  sex 
as  a  function  of  the  chromosomes.  Comparative  em- 
bryology has  been  the  object  of  extremely  precise  re- 
searches (on  cell-lineage),  among  which  must  be  cited 
in  the  front  rank  those  of  Mr.  E.  Conklin  of  Princeton. 
We  owe  to  Mr.  R.  G.  Harrison  of  Yale  very  remarkable 
works  in  experimental  embryology,  which,  in  particu- 
lar, have  led  to  the  culture  of  tissues  in  vitro.  The 
researches  of  Mr.  T.  H.  Morgan  of  Columbia,  on  Men- 
delian  heredity  and  mutations  in  Drosophila,  are  of 
capital  interest  at  the  present  hour.  Messrs.  Calkins 
of  Columbia  and  Woodruff  of  Yale,  have  brought 
about  important  progress  in  the  biology  of  Infusoria, 
and  in  the  general  problems  raised  by  the  question  of 
their  senescence.  At  New  York,  we  should  mention 
several  other  names,  like  those  of  Messrs.  B.  Dean,  H. 
Crampton,  and  Charles  Stockard.  At  Chicago,  the 
work  of  Messrs.  F.  R.  Lillie,  Tower,  Child,  Newman, 
and  Patterson;  at  Harvard,  those  of  Messrs.  Mark, 
Parker,  Wheeler,  and  Castle;  at  Johns  Hopkins  those  of 
Mr.  Jennings,  constitute  remarkable  contributions  in 
very  diverse  directions.  And  one  might  add  many 
other  names  to  those  which  I  have  just  mentioned.  I 
do  not  know  whether,  at  the  present  time,  many  other 
countries  could  furnish  an  equivalent. 

Physiology,  botany,1  geology,  seem  to  me  to  lead  to 

1  One  can  judge  them  in  a  certain  measure  from  the  list  of  physiologists 
and  botanists  forming  a  part  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences.  See 
note  p.  224. 


164    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

similar  conclusions.  I  am  not  competent  enough  to 
formulate  a  precise  conclusion  in  each  of  the  other 
sciences. 

The  development  of  research  in  the  universities  de- 
pends on  two  chief  factors :  the  men  who  can  inspire  it 
and  the  equipment  to  carry  it  out.  The  first  is  a  neces- 
sary condition,  the  second,  though  but  an  aid,  never- 
theless is  very  important.  Pasteur  and  Claude  Bernard 
made  discoveries  which  revolutionized  biology,  under 
deplorable  conditions  of  equipment,  with  slight  material 
resources,  and  almost  without  co-workers  to  help  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  rare  to  see  sumptuous  labo- 
ratories from  which  nothing  comes  forth,  for  lack  of 
creative  inspiration.  But  we  must  not  for  that  dis- 
count the  importance  and  value  of  equipment.  If,  at 
the  period  of  their  greatest  productivity,  Pasteur  and 
Claude  Bernard  had  had  abundant  material  resources, 
as  moreover  they  insistently  demanded,  their  work 
would  have  been  far  from  suffering  from  it,  and  more 
than  one  idea,  arrested  in  the  germ  state,  would  with- 
out doubt  have  ripened. 

In  America  at  the  present  time,  the  equipment  is  not 
at  fault,  and  in  certain  sciences  at  least,  men  of  ability 
are  not  lacking.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  material  re- 
sources have  developed  much  more  rapidly  than  in- 
dividuals of  ability.  In  a  country  as  rich  as  the  United 
States,  and  in  which  the  wealthy  classes  take  an  effec- 
tive interest  in  the  universities,  it  is  easier  to  build  and 
equip  a  laboratory  than  to  find  a  director  of  the  first 
order  for  it.  Every  university  aspires  to  develop  as 
much  as  possible,  and  to  attract  the  maximum  number 
of  students.  For  that,  it  tries  to  strike  the  imagination 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  165 

by  vast  well-equipped  buildings  which  are  a  tangible 
argument,  for  the  public. 

The  luxury  and  extent  of  this  material  equipment, 
from  the  confession  of  many  Americans,  are  often  ex- 
cessive, especially  for  establishments  of  second  rank. 
The  mark  of  the  spirit  of  bigness,  which  impregnates 
contemporary  American  thought,  is  on  them. 

Harvard  does  not  deserve  that  reproach.  Its  present 
scientific  laboratories  are,  rather,  too  modest,  and  call 
for  development  and  modernization  in  general,  except, 
however,  those  of  its  magnificent  Medical  School, 
built  a  few  years  ago.  The  natural  history  laboratories 
were  still  housed,  last  year,1  in  the  Museum  of  Compara- 
tive Zoology,  founded  by  Louis  Agassiz,  and  also  bear- 
ing his  name.  The  finest  zoological  laboratories  I 
have  had  occasion  to  visit,  are  that  of  Princeton,  di- 
rected by  Mr.  E.  Conklin,  that  of  Philadelphia  (Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania),  directed  by  Mr.  McClung, 
and  especially  that  of  Yale,  directed  by  Mr.  R.  G.  Har- 
rison. These  various  laboratories  are  less  than  ten 
years  old.  Those  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  also 
recent,  are  likewise  very  well  equipped.  The  laboratory 
of  zoology  at  Philadelphia,  very  carefully  planned  by 
the  late  lamented  Professor  Thomas  Montgomery, 
served  as  a  good  model  for  that  of  Yale  (Osborn  Memo- 
rial Laboratory).  There  are  all  the  resources  desirable 
for  teaching  and  research,  in  the  various  branches  of 
zoology  (comparative  anatomy,  cytology,  embryology, 
protistology,  physiology).  They  have  not  neglected 

1  Those  of  Botany  and  Zoology  are  to  be  moved  this  year  into  another 
building,  Pierce  Hall,  hitherto  occupied  by  the  Engineering  School,  which 
has  been  released  by  moving  these  courses  into  the  new  Massachusetts  In- 
stitute of  Technology  in  accordance  with  an  agreement  between  Harvard 
and  the  institution. 


166    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

equipment  for  keeping  living  animals  (acquariums, 
vivariums,  insectariums,  hot-houses).  These  labora- 
tories have  open  spaces,  into  which  they  can  be  ex- 
tended, and  which  permit  experiments  in  the  open  air. 
They  have  rooms  with  constant  temperature,  and  equip- 
ment for  cold.  They  are  constructed  so  as  to  be  as  far 
as  possible  free  from  danger  of  fire.  The  cupboards, 
shelves,  book  stacks  in  the  libraries,  according  to  a 
usage  growing  more  and  more  general  in  America,  are 
of  steel.  They  are  very  well  arranged  as  to  light  and 
ventilation. 

The  zoological  section  of  the  Osborn  Memorial  Labo- 
ratory at  Yale  cost  $1,500,000,  not  including  the 
instruments.  I  had  the  personal  satisfaction  —  though 
very  platonic  —  of  seeing  that  the  plan  of  this  excel- 
lent plant  answered  very  exactly  the  outline  of  the 
needs  which  I  had  set  forth  for  the  new  laboratory  of 
Evolution  at  the  Sorbonne,  which  would  be  finished 
today  were  it  not  for  the  war;  the  credit  at  my  disposal 
was  too  modest  for  me  to  think  of  realizing  such  a 
program  so  completely. 

Certain  universities  are  well  developed  for  the  appli- 
cations of  biology  to  agriculture,  and  for  the  related 
parts  of  zoology.  Such,  among  others,  are  Cornell  Uni- 
versity at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  the  University  of  Illinois  at 
Urbana,  and  that  of  California  at  Berkeley.  Harvard, 
which  had,  at  Forest  Hills,  near  Boston,  one  of  the 
oldest  agricultural  schools,  Bussey  Institution,  trans- 
formed it,  a  few  years  ago,  into  an  institution  of  ex- 
perimental biology,  devoted  especially  to  the  study  of 
Mendelian  heredity  in  animals  and  plants,1  and  also  to 

1  Professors  W.  E.  Castle  and  E.  M.  East  have  made  some  very  impor- 
tant researches  there. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  167 

forest  biology.  These  various  establishments  for  agri- 
cultural biology,  the  experimental  study  of  heredity,  or 
entomology,  as  applied  to  agriculture,  are  very  interest- 
ing, and  without  equivalent  in  France.  I  cannot  deal 
at  length  with  it  here,  and  moreover  you  will  find  a  very 
precise  description  of  them  in  the  fine  book  recently 
published  by  M.  Paul  Marchal.1  after  the  journey  on 
which  he  studied  the  scientific  organization  of  the 
Bureau  of  Entomology  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture (see  below). 

Without  any  doubt,  remarks  of  the  same  kind  could 
be  made  for  the  laboratories  of  sciences  other  than 
zoology.  In  all,  they  have  been  enormously  developed 
in  twenty-five  years,  and  certain  of  these  laboratories 
have  magnificent  plants  and  endowments. 

It  is  especially  well  known  how  powerful  is  the 
equipment  of  the  American  observatories,  such  as  that 
of  the  University  of  Chicago  (Yerkes  Observatory), 
and  that  of  California  (Lick  Observatory). 

Besides  laboratories,  we  must  not  forget  the  collec- 
tions and  museums,  in  the  equipment  of  the  universi- 
ties. Harvard  has  a  celebrated  Museum  of  Comparative 
Zoology,  founded  about  1860  by  L.  Agassiz,  enriched 
by  numerous  expeditions,  in  particular  by  the  oceano- 
graphic  explorations  of  Alexander  Agassiz.  In  botany 
it  has  the  herbarium  of  Asa  Gray  (Gray  Herbarium), 
containing  today  more  than  540,000  leaves,  and  in- 
stalled, since  1909,  at  the  Botanical  Garden,  in  a  speci- 
ally constructed  building,  with  library  (26,000  volumes, 
and  pamphlets),  drying  rooms,  files  of  photographs, 
laboratory,  workrooms  and  lecture  rooms,  all  of  fire- 
proof materials.  Harvard  also  owns  a  magnificent  col- 

1  P.  Marchal,  loc.  cit. 


168    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

lection  of  trees,  the  Arnold  Arboretum,  near  the  Bussey 
Institution,  covering  more  than  225  acres.  The  mu- 
seums of  mineralogy  and  geology,  of  ethnography  (Pea- 
body  Museum),  are  no  less  rich,  and  these  collections 
are  constantly  growing,  thanks  to  gifts  or  bequests  of 
special  collections  made  by  professors  and  specialists. 
Finally,  of  the  rapidly  growing  riches  of  the  Ameri- 
can universities  the  most  remarkable  is  their  libraries. 
This  is  the  number  1  of  volumes  in  the  most  important 
libraries  in  1913-14  (not  including  pamphlets). 

Harvard 1,200,000  Princeton 320,000 

Yale 1,000,000  California 300,000 

Columbia 550,000  Illinois 300,000 

Cornell 440,000  Leland  Stanford 230,000 

Chicago 430,000  Wisconsin 207,000 

Pennsylvania 421,000  Minnesota 187,000 

Ohio 350,000  Johns  Hopkins 183,000 

Michigan 337,000 

Twelve  others  exceed  100,000  volumes,  and  many  are 
those  which  have  between  50,000  and  100,000. 

There  too,  Harvard  comes  at  the  head,  and  its  li- 
brary building,  the  H.  E.  Widener  Memorial,  deserves 
special  mention.  It  has  just  been  built  and  was  opened 
for  the  year  1915-16.  The  stacks,  almost  entirely  of 
metal,  have  a  dozen  stories  and  a  capacity  of  about 
3,000,000  volumes.  Sixty  professors  have  individual 
rooms  in  direct  contact  with  the  stacks,  and  can  receive 
their  students  there.  Besides,  300  cubicles,  supplied 
with  tables,  are  arranged  in  the  stacks  to  permit  gradu- 
ate students  who  have  special  authorization,  to  work 
near  the  shelves.  It  is  open  from  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening.  A  printed  card 

1  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1913-14.    Cf.  p.  162. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  169 

catalogue  is  complete  and  easy  to  consult.  The  librarian 
has  at  his  disppsal  more  than  one  hundred  employees. 
On  the  top  floor,  thirty-four  working  rooms,  with  special 
libraries  of  books  in  current  use,  are  arranged  for  the 
work  of  the  students  in  each  of  the  divisions  or  depart- 
ments (Mathematics,  French,  German,  Sanskrit,  etc.). 
This  library  includes  only  the  general  collection  of 
books  of  Harvard  College,  or  actually  about  675,000 
volumes  and  433,000  pamphlets.  Besides,  about  60,000 
volumes  are  scattered  in  the  various  laboratories.  Fi- 
nally, about  450,000  volumes  more,  and  270,000  pam- 
phlets constitute  special  libraries  belonging  to  diverse 
parts  of  the  university.1 

Department  Volumes  Pamphlets 

Library  of  Theology 106,780  50,944 

Arnold  Arboretum 30,320  7,143 

Astronomical  Observatory 14,586  34,818 

Meteorological  Observatory 3,204  15,067 

Bussey  Institution 3,284  16,067 

Dental  School 2,228  10,000 

Gray  Herbarium 15,953  10,672 

Law  School 161,734  21,989 

Medical  School 27,000  46,067 

Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology 52,336  49,219 

Peabody  Museum  of  Ethnography 6,328  6,439 

I  was  myself  able  to  test  in  how  practical  a  fashion 
this  great  library  is  planned,  and  how  liberal  and  con- 
venient its  regulations  are.  I  could  also  note,  for  zoology 
and  the  natural  sciences,  that  duplications  are  as  limited 
as  possible,  and  how  much  real  wealth  the  large  number 
of  volumes  consequently  means. 

The  various  preceding  notes  attest  the  breadth  of 
equipment  of  the  great  American  universities,  and  they 

1  A.  C.  Potter,  The  Library  of  Harvard  University,  3d  ed.,  1915. 


170    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

are  particularly  impressive  when  one  looks  backward 
and  measures  the  road  covered  in  thirty  years. 

The  question,  then,  which  is  put  as  to  the  future,  is 
to  know  whether  research  will  become  more  and  more 
independent,  in  what  measure  it  will  separate  itself 
from  the  college  foundation,  whether  in  any  case  it 
really  tends  to  do  so,  and  what  will  be  the  resultant  of 
the  diverse  influences  in  play. 

A  solution  for  the  existing  difficulties  might  be  the 
formation,  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  universities,  of  well- 
equipped  laboratories  of  pure  research  (the  endowment 
remaining  applicable  for  research  in  a  large  number  of 
university  laboratories  is  small).  If  it  is  essential  that 
teaching  should  be  in  an  atmosphere  of  research,  that 
does  not  exclude  the  existence  of  certain  parts  of  the 
university  in  which  research  should  reign  exclusively. 
Foundations  of  this  kind  are  beginning  to  develop. 
The  maritime  stations,  the  observatories,  are  more  or 
less  in  this  position.  At  Harvard  the  Wolcott  Gibbs 
Laboratory  has  recently  been  created,  thanks  to  gifts, 
specially  planned  for  research  in  physical  chemistry, 
and  directed  by  Professor  T.  W.  Richards,  who  was 
awarded  the  Nobel  Prize  in  1915.  Senator  Vilas  has 
bequeathed  to  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  the  neces- 
sary sums  to  create  ten  chairs  of  pure  research,  without 
routine  work,  in  which  the  salary  of  the  professors, 
which  is  to  be  $10,000,  would  attract  men  of  worth. 
There  is  a  very  clear  tendency  to  create  special  institu- 
tions of  research  for  each  science,  of  which  different 
countries  possess  more  or  less  numerous  examples. 
The  Pasteur  Institute  of  Paris  was  one  of  the  proto- 
types. Germany,  in  the  years  which  preceded  the  war, 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  171 

was  systematically  creating  great  institutions  of  this 
kind,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  Gesell- 
schaft. 

In  my  opinion,  that  is  one  of  the  essential  forms  of 
the  organization  which  is  required.  At  present,  and  in 
the  years  which  preceded  the  war,  the  public  powers, 
in  France,  did  not  give  sufficient  attention  to  it.  They 
had  too  much  superstition  for  the  chair  and  for  oral 
teaching.1 

In  the  United  States  it  seems  that  the  institutions 
for  pure  research  have  won  their  cause  from  henceforth. 

C.  S.  Minot,  professor  of  embryology  in  the  Harvard 
Medical  School,  who  was  teaching  as  exchange  pro- 
fessor in  the  University  of  Berlin  in  1911-12,  expressed, 
in  his  opening  lecture,2  the  idea  that  America  was  about 
to  enter  extensively  on  this  path,  and  he  divided  the 
history  of  higher  education  in  his  country  into  three 
periods;  that  of  the  colleges,  which  is  past,  that  of  the 
universities,  which  is  the  present,  and  that  of  the  spe- 
cial institutions  for  research,  which  is  beginning.  The 
United  States  already  has,  in  fact,  a  rather  large  num- 
ber of  institutions  of  this  kind,  either  attached  to  the 
universities  and  more  or  less  autonomous,  or  completely 
independent.  The  most  important  we  shall  pass  now  in 
review. 

1  Cf .  M.  Caullery,  L'fivolution  de  notre  enseignement  superieur  scienti- 
fique.    Revue  du  mois,  vol.,  iv,  1907, 

2  Science,  December  6,  1912, 


CHAPTER  XIV 

INSTITUTES  OF  RESEARCH 

1.  Research  in  the  service  of  industry.   The  Mellon  Institute  at  Pittsburgh. 

2.  Wistar  Institute  at  Philadelphia.    3.    The  biological  stations:   Wood's 
Hole,  Bermuda,  San  Diego  (Scripps  Institution  for  biological  research). 

1.  MELLON  INSTITUTE  AT  PITTSBURGH  RESEARCH 
IN  THE  SERVICE  OF  INDUSTRY 

THE  Mellon  Institute  for  Industrial  Research,  at  Pitts- 
burgh, founded  five  or  six  years  ago,  is  of  an  entirely 
new  type,  and  deserves  to  hold  our  attention  quite 
specially. 

It  is  an  establishment  for  pure  research,  but  attached 
to  a  university,  that  of  Pittsburgh,  while  keeping  to  it- 
self its  own  particular  board  of  trustees  and  constitu- 
tion and  a  very  great  autonomy.  It  was  established, 
thanks  to  a  gift  of  $500,000,  made  in  1913,  by  the 
brothers  A.  W.  and  R.  B.  Mellon;  of  which  sum 
$250,000  was  devoted  to  construction,  $60,000  to  the 
purchase  of  apparatus,  $20,000  to  the  library.  The 
buildings  were  dedicated  in  1915.  But  the  institute 
had  been  at  work  in  provisional  quarters  since  1914. 

The  plan  of  this  institute  is  simple  and  fertile.  A 
manufacturer  has  a  problem  to  solve,  requiring  scientific 
researches  for  which  he  has  neither  laboratories  and 
equipment,  nor  the  necessary  men.  He  turns  over  to 
the  Mellon  Institute  a  definite  sum  to  have  the  research 
in  question  undertaken  by  a  competent  scientist,  whom 
the  Institute  undertakes  to  find.  The  Institute  fur- 
nishes its  laboratories  and  general  equipment.  The 

172 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  173 

specialist  chosen  works  under  the  direction  of  the  In- 
stitute; he  signs  a  regular  contract;  his  researches  are 
secret,  and  their  results  are  the  property  of  the  donor 
of  the  subvention.  With  such  an  organization,  manu- 
facturers are  spared  the  general  expenses  of  a  perma- 
nent scientific  equipment,  and  the  greater  difficulties  of 
securing  a  stable  personnel  of  scientists. 

The  workers  thus  engaged  by  the  Institute  take  the 
name  of  fellows;  each  foundation  is  a  fellowship.  They 
are  essentially  temporary,  with  regard  to  the  probable 
length  of  the  researches,  one,  two,  or  three  years. 

The  laboratory  is  equipped  for  researches  in  physics 
and  chemistry,  especially  electro-chemistry  and  physi- 
cal chemistry.  It  has  general  rooms,  equipped  with 
boilers,  electric  furnaces,  and  for  experiments  at  a  low 
temperature,  and  individual  rooms  for  each  fellow.  Its 
creation  belongs  especially  to  the  great  movement, 
largely  accentuated  since  the  war,  which  has  in  view 
the  development  of  chemical  industry  in  the  United 
States  and  freeing  it  in  many  of  its  divisions,  from  the 
monopoly  de  facto  held  by  Germany. 

From  its  foundation,  manufacturers  have  under- 
stood the  value  of  this  institution.  The  Institute 
already  has  a  budget  of  $150,000.  In  1914,  even  before 
the  opening  of  the  permanent  building,  thirty  fellow- 
ships were  active;  some  of  them  require  the  collabora- 
tion of  several  persons.  The  subjects  bear  on  problems 
with  which  the  most  varied  industries  are  concerned, 
smoke-consuming  devices,  baking,  utilization  of  fruit 
pulps,  hardening  fats,  high  potentials  and  chemical 
reactions,  turbines,  crude  petroleum,  manufacture  of 
food  products,  fertilizers,  cements,  radiators,  glassware, 
natural  gas,  soaps,  metallurgy  of  brass,  yeasts,  fertiliz- 


174    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ers,  etc.  Naturally  the  exact  nature  of  the  questions 
studied  is  not  published.  The  subscriptions  amounted 
to  $183,000;  and  for  the  current  year,  the  total  sub- 
scribed for  researches  was  $97,400.  A  company  of  ten 
fellows  were  engaged  on  smoke-consuming  devices, 
representing  varied  specialties,  engineers,  electricians, 
a  meteorologist,  a  botanist  and  a  bacteriologist.  This 
fellowship  alone  was  provided  for  three  years  with  sub- 
sidies of  $12,500,  $15,000  and  $12,000. 

In  a  large  number  of  contracts  a  bonus  is  promised 
the  fellows,  once  their  research  is  ended,  over  and 
above  their  regular  allowances,  which  bonus  in  certain 
cases  reaches  $10,000,  or  a  percentage  on  the  industrial 
exploitation  of  the  process  studied.  Certain  of  the  fel- 
lows have  already  entered,  at  the  expiration  of  their 
researches,  into  the  companies  for  which  they  had 
worked. 

This  mode  of  association  of  science  and  industry 1  seems 
to  me  extremely  flexible  and  practical.  It  may  greatly 
stimulate  young  workers;  it  spares  manufacturers 
enormous  general  expenses,  and  permits  them  to  engage 
in  research  on  a  problem,  with  a  clearly  limited  budget. 
The  facts,  moreover,  seem  to  assure,  from  henceforth, 
the  success  of  this  foundation. 

2.  THE  WISTAR  INSTITUTE  AT  PHILADELPHIA 

The  Wistar  Institute 2  is  devoted  exclusively  to 
scientific  research,  and  especially  to  anatomy  and  em- 
bryology. It  bears  the  name  of  a  professor  of  anatomy 
in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  at  the  beginning  of 

1  Cf.  Science,  May  8,  1914,  p.  672,  and  March  19.  1915,  p.  418. 

2  Cf.  Bull.  no.  5  of  the  Wistar  Institute  (Organization  and  Work  of  the 
W.  I.). 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  175 

the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  generosity  of  a  grand 
nephew  of  this  scientist,  General  J.  Wistar,  made  its 
building  possible  and  assured  its  endowment. 

Wistar  Institute  is  attached  to  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  which  elects  annually  its  board  of  man- 
agers, to  the  number  of  nine.  Its  scientific  staff  is 
formed  of  about  ten  persons.  An  advisory  board  sug- 
gests questions  it  would  be  desirable  to  study  in  the 
laboratories. 

This  institution  is  about  twenty  years  old.  It  has 
research  laboratories,  which  have  tried  to  be  above  all 
as  completely  equipped  a  centre  as  possible  for  the 
study  of  the  brain  and  neurology. 

The  institute  is  at  the  same  time  a  publishing  centre 
for  the  journals  of  morphology:  Anatomical  Record, 
American  Journal  of  Anatomy,  Journal  of  Morphology, 
Journal  of  Experimental  Zoology,  Journal  of  Compara- 
tive Neurology. 

Finally,  they  have  tried  to  make  of  it  a  centre  of 
organization  for  anatomical  work  (preparation  of  ma- 
terials, organization  of  means  of  demonstration). 

3.   THE  BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS 

The  Laboratory  of  Marine  Biology  at  Wood's  Hole. 

As  in  other  countries,  marine  biology  has  been,  in 
the  United  States,  in  the  last  forty  years,  one  of  the 
parts  of  science  in  which  research  has  been  best  co- 
ordinated with  teaching,  and  has  caused  the  rise  of  the 
most  institutes  for  research.  The  chief  establishment 
of  this  kind,  in  America,  is  the  Wood's  Hole  laboratory 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  Massachusetts,  in  Vine- 
yard Sound,  not  far  from  the  tip  of  Nantucket. 


176    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

There  are,  in  reality,  two  distinct  biological  labora- 
tories at  Wood's  Hole,  one  belonging  to  the  Federal 
bureau  of  Fisheries,  and  forming  part  of  the  great 
scheme  of  governmental  scientific  services,  to  which  I 
shall  return  later;  the  other  independent,  which  plays 
a  great  part  in  the  scientific  life  of  the  United  States. 

Marine  biology  owed  its  rise,  in  America,  in  large  part 
to  Louis  and  Alexander  Agassiz.  Under  their  influence, 
more  or  less  ephemeral  stations  were  first  created.  In 
1888  they  were  stabilized  at  Wood's  Hole.  At  present 
a  certain  number  of  universities  and  colleges  are  as- 
sociated to  organize  there  a  well-equipped  laboratory. 
One  of  the  best  American  zoologists,  Charles  O.  Whit- 
man, once  professor  at  the  University  of  Chicago  has 
been  its  soul.  This  laboratory  has  been  a  centre  of 
attraction  to  which  each  year  the  greater  part  of  the 
most  distinguished  biologists  of  the  various  universities 
have  come  to  work;  a  significant  example  to  contrast 
with  the  sterilizing  dispersion  which  has  been  our  rule 
in  the  matter  of  zoological  stations,  as  in  other  things. 

Thus  little  by  little,  Wood's  Hole  has  become  a  sort  of 
summer  capitol  of  American  biology.  A  large  number 
of  zoologists,  physiologists  and  even  botanists  bought 
lands  there  and  each  built  a  cottage.  Now,  from  June 
to  September,  there  is  a  veritable  congress,  more  and 
more  numerous,  of  men  like  E.  B.  Wilson,  T.  H.  Morgan, 
J.  Loeb,  F.  R.  Lillie,  R.  S.  Lillie,  H.  H.  Newman,  W. 
Patton,  H.  V.  Crampton,  G.  N.  Calkins,  G.  Drew,  Ed- 
ward G.  Conklin,  G.  Lefevre,  C.  McClung,  A.  P.  Mat- 
thew, G.  T.  Moore,  etc.,  without  counting  less  regular 
guests. 

I  saw  this  city  of  biologists  only  in  May,  when  they 
had  not  yet  come,  and  unfortunately  I  could  not  avail 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  177 

myself  of  the  invitation  which  they  had  given  me  to 
come  and  see  it  during  the  vacation  period. 

For  a  long  time  Wood's  Hole  has  consisted  only  of 
wooden  buildings,  laboratories  and  club  houses,  for  the 
material  organization  of  life  is  never  lacking  side  by 
side  with  the  intellectual  equipment.  Although  many 
universities  and  colleges  were  associated  to  bring  it  into 
being  and  to  sustain  it,  the  existence  of  the  Wood's 
Hole  station  was  rather  precarious.  But  a  few  years 
ago,  a  Chicago  benefactor,  related  to  some  biologists, 
Mr.  C.  R.  Crane,  came  to  consolidate  the  present  and 
even  the  future.  Thanks  to  his  gifts,  the  research  lab- 
oratory has  been  rebuilt  of  brick  and  equipped  in  a 
complete  fashion  (aquariums,  circulation  of  water,  in- 
struments, library),  for  experienced  investigators; 
forty  to  fifty  can  work  there  comfortably.  At  the 
same  time,  Mr.  Crane  has  assured  the  establishment 
an  annual  budget  which  the  subsidies  of  the  institu- 
tions which  send  workers  there  complete.  Besides,  the 
station  derives  about  $15,000  from  the  sale  of  marine 
animals  to  the  various  universities  for  the  needs  of 
their  practical  teaching.  Thanks  to  these  various  re- 
sources, which  together  exceed  $30,000,  Wood's  Hole 
now  has  its  existence  assured,  a  sufficient  equipment, 
a  good  fleet,  and  a  permanent  staff.  Mr.  G.  Drew,  who 
is  resident  naturalist,  has  put  it  in  excellent  form.  The 
general  direction  of  the  institution  is  entrusted  to  Mr. 
F.  R.  Lillie,  a  professor  at  the  University  of  Chicago. 

Wood's  Hole  has  been,  and  remains,  at  the  same  time, 
a  centre  of  teaching.  The  old  wooden  buildings  remain 
and  are  reserved  for  the  young  workers,1  or  for  students 
who  come  there  for  instruction.  Every  year  theoretical 

1  A  workroom  for  the  season  costs  $100. 


178    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

and  practical  courses  are  organized  in  a  very  precise 
way  for  six  weeks,  from  June  15  to  the  first  days  of 
August,  on  the  diverse  branches  of  biology  (compara- 
tive anatomy,  embryology,  physiology,  general  biology, 
botany).  Excursions  complement  them,  and  the  whole 
forms  a  very  methodical  introduction  to  the  marine 
fauna  and  flora.1 

It  will  be  noted  that  nothing  is  free,  even  in  matters 
of  pure  science,  in  America.  (University  extension  and 
Chautauqua  teaching,  besides,  though  works  of  popular 
usefulness,  pay  for  themselves.)  This  system  can  be 
criticized,  but  it  has  as  a  consequence  that  all  the  tasks 
undertaken  are  carried  out  seriously,  or  are  dropped 
early.  Success  is  lasting  only  if  the  paying  participants 
are  satisfied.  There  are  too  many  things  in  France 
which  are  free,  but  carried  out  in  too  insufficient  a 
fashion,  and  the  general  feeling  of  false  shame  at  accept- 
ing or  asking  for  a  return  for  certain  exceptional  serv- 

1  These  courses  are  given  by  professors  or  assistants  from  the  various 
universities.  Enrollment  costs  $50  for  each.  Here  are  some  figures,  relative 
to  the  attendance  at  Wood's  Hole  during  late  years. 


1911 

1912 

1913 

1914 

1915 

Investigators  

82 

93 

122 

127 

137 

(zoologists  

42 

44 

58 

50 

69 

18 

14 

17 

22 

20 

botanists  

f  zoologists  

8 
12 

10 
21 

11 
21 

10 
31 

6 
36 

Beginners  j  physiologists  

2 

2 

2 

7 
7 

1 
3 

4 

2 

Students    .  . 

65 

67 

69 

89 

105 

Zoologists     . 

26 

24 

33 

43 

47 

Emeryologist.  ... 

20 

15 

22 

21 

37 

Physiologist. 

6 

11 

8 

10 

15 

Botanists  

13 

17 

7 

15 

6 

Totals  

147 

180 

191 

216 

242 

SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  179 

ices  is  certainly  bad  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
collective  interest. 

Lectures,  too,  are  given  at  Wood's  Hole,  and  they 
were  the  origin  of  the  Biological  Bulletin  of  the  Wood's 
Hole  Marine  Laboratory,  today  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing biological  periodicals  of  the  United  States,  which 
contains,  in  preliminary  form,  a  considerable  number  of 
works,  and  of  very  varied  subjects. 

Wood's  Hole  offers  us,  then,  another  new  example  of 
the  realization  of  great  scientific  institutions  through 
private  initiative  and  the  spirit  of  cooperation.  The 
property  of  the  station  belongs  today  to  the  corporation 
of  all  those  who  contributed  to  the  foundation,  or  more 
than  300  persons,  individuals  or  collectivities;  its  ad- 
ministration is  entrusted  to  a  board,  composed  of  rep- 
resentatives of  the  various  branches  of  biology.  As 
Mr.  F.  R.  Lillie  remarked,  in  July,  1914,  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  new  building,  it  answers  a  very  democratic 
conception:  "Freedom  of  organization,"  he  said,  "is 
one  of  our  mottoes;  cooperation  is  the  other.  Both 
are  essential  and  inseparable.  In  freedom  similar  in- 
terests cooperate  naturally,  and  as  long  as  they  respect 
the  freedom.  .  .  .  The  property  and  the  control  of 
this  laboratory  are  in  the  hands  of  those  who  use  it, 
and  that  is  the  essence  of  a  democratic  organization." 

Other  Biological  Stations.     Bermuda,  San  Diego 

I  shall  place  beside  the  data  on  the  Wood's  Hole 
station,  some  concerning  the  other  biological  stations, 
without  pretense  to  completeness. 

The  Federal  Bureau  of  Fisheries,  as  has  been  said 
above,  has  a  laboratory  of  its  own  at  Wood's  Hole, 
quite  near,  but  absolutely  independent  of  the  one  which 


180    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

has  just  been  described.  The  two  stations  have,  how- 
ever, often  helped  one  another  in  various  ways.  The 
Fisheries  station  has  been  directed  especially  toward 
biological  research  which  pertains  to  the  fish  industry. 
The  steamer  Albatross,  which  is  assigned  to  it,  has  been 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Alexander  Agassiz  several 
times,  for  his  great  submarine  explorations  in  the  sea 
of  the  Antilles  and  the  Pacific. 

The  Bureau  of  Fisheries  has  another  station  for 
marine  biology  at  Beaufort,  N.  C.,  and  is  establishing 
a  third  at  Key  West,  at  the  southern  point  of  Florida, 
to  study  the  subtropical  fauna  of  the  Gulf  Stream  and 
of  the  depths  which  it  covers.  It  is  at  present  planning 
a  fourth  on  the  Pacific.  It  has,  besides,  established  a 
fresh  water  biological  station  on  the  Mississippi  at 
Fairport,  Iowa.  These  various  stations  are  open  to  all 
qualified  scientists. 

There  is  a  biological  station  at  the  Tortugas  Islands 
in  southern  Florida.  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  it 
in  connection  with  the  Carnegie  Institution. 

Harvard  University  has  established  an  interesting 
biological  station  in  Bermuda,  and  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  being  its  guest  for  a  few  days.  It  is  modestly  in- 
stalled on  an  islet,  Agar's  Island,  in  unused  buildings 
of  the  English  naval  station.  The  Bermudas  offer  the 
naturalist  a  very  rich  fauna,  extremely  interesting  for 
its  subtropical  character.  The  lagoons  which  surround 
the  actual  islands  are  enclosed  within  coral  reefs,  which 
shelter  the  brilliant  fauna  usual  to  these  formations. 
The  land  is  no  less  interesting  than  the  sea.  The  few 
days  which  I  passed  at  this  station  are  numbered 
among  my  best  memories  as  a  zoologist. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  181 

The  project  which  should  have  been  realized  in  the 
Bermudas  was  vaster.  Several  universities  were  to 
have  cooperated,  likewise  the  local  authorities.  But 
this  association  has  not  yet  been  realized. 

On  the  Pacific  I  had  an  opportunity  to  visit  the  bio- 
logical station  at  San  Diego,  attached  to  the  University 
of  California,  and  I  received  there  the  cordial  hospital- 
ity of  its  director,  Professor  W.  E.  Ritter.  This  station 
is  situated  a  little  north  of  the  rapidly  growing  town  of 
La  Jolla,  about  fifteen  miles  from  San  Diego.  Its  official 
name  is  Scripps  Institution  for  Biological  research. 
Again,  it  is  the  generosity  of  benefactors,  Mr.  and  Miss 
Scripps,  which  has  assured  its  rapid  and  considerable 
development. 

Of  five  planned,  two  large  buildings  are  already  con- 
structed; the  first  dates  from  1909,  the  second  was  to 
be  dedicated  a  few  weeks  after  my  visit,  and  is  later 
destined  to  be  a  library.  The  station  is  located  on  a 
very  fine  site,  on  the  seashore,  on  which  it  abuts  for 
nearly  half  a  mile,  and  its  lands  cover  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  acres.  It  has  a  very  fine  wharf,  especially 
constructed  for  the  use  of  its  fleet.1 

Its  administrative  constitution  also  is  impressed  with 
a  very  great  spirit  of  liberalism.  It  is  attached  to  the 
University  of  California  (more  than  twenty  hours  by 
rail  from  San  Diego),  which  is  a  state  university,  but 
it  has  as  large  an  autonomy  as  possible.  It  is  directly 
managed  by  its  board  of  directors,  which  includes  its 
director,  the  permanent  members  of  its  scientific  staff, 

1  See  W.  E.  Ritter,  The  Marine  Biological  Station  of  San  Diego,  Its 
History,  Present  Condition,  Achievements,  and  Aims.  Univ.  of  California 
Publications,  Zoology,  1,  ix,  no.  4,  1912. 


182    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

and  the  donors,  Mr.  and  Miss  Scripps.  The  most  im- 
portant decisions  are  submitted  for  ratification  to  the 
Board  of  Regents  of  the  University.  Here  also,  as  at 
Wood's  Hole,  and  contrary  to  what  happens  in  the 
universities,  the  scientific  staff  has  a  large  place  in  the 
effective  management  of  the  institution. 

The  program  of  this  station  has  been  considerably 
broadened.  At  first  they  had  in  view  only  the  study  of 
marine  fauna.  Today  the  general  relations  between  the 
marine  fauna  and  the  flora  and  the  conditions  of  the 
environment  are  the  principal  object.  This  includes 
almost  all  Oceanography.  The  station  purposes  to 
study  the  problems  of  the  same  order  for  the  terrestrial 
fauna,  thanks  to  the  advantages  of  the  land  which  it 
has.  Mr.  Sumner  has  undertaken,  with  this  intent, 
very  interesting  researches  on  the  variations  of  Rodents 
of  the  American  West,  belonging  to  the  genus  Peromys- 
cus.  The  director,  Mr.  W.  E.  Ritter,  is  animated  with 
the  noblest  enthusiasm,  and  with  the  desire  to  contrib- 
ute, through  the  scientific  work  of  this  station,  to 
general  progress.  The  Scripps  Institution  is  essentially 
a  research  laboratory,  but  as  at  Wood's  Hole,  they  have 
organized  temporary  instruction,  in  the  summer,  chiefly 
for  the  students  of  the  University  of  California.  Pop- 
ular lectures  are  also  given.1 

1  Several  biological  stations  are  now  being  created  in  the  northwestern 
states,  Oregon  and  Washington,  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

This  would  also  be  the  place  to  speak  of  the  botanical  gardens,  some  of 
which  are  very  large  —  New  York's,  at  Bronx  Park,  has  more  than  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  acres;  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  at  St.  Louis,  has  six 
hundred  and  twenty-five  —  and  of  the  great  zoological  gardens.  For  the 
last  named,  see  G.  Loisel,  Archives  Missions  Scientif.  et  Litter. 

The  great  national  parks  (there  are  twenty  of  them  at  present),  in  which 
nature  is  rigorously  respected,  would  also  furnish  admirable  biological  sta- 
tions. But  they  have  not  yet  been  utilized  in  this  way. 


CHAPTER  XV 

INSTITUTES  FOR  RESEARCH 

The  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington.  Its  organization.  Its  various 
departments.  The  Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical  Research  at  New 
York. 

1.   THE  CARNEGIE  INSTITUTION  OF  WASHINGTON 

1V/TR.  ANDREW  CARNEGIE  has  devoted  almost 
-*-  -*•  all  his  immense  fortune  to  philanthropic  works, 
and  above  all,  to  educational  works,  the  latter  being, 
for  him,  the  fundamental  factor  in  social  progress.  One 
of  his  great  foundations  is  intended  to  reward  acts  of 
heroism;  it  is  well-known  and  does  not  come  within 
the  plan  of  this  work.  We  spoke  above  of  the  Carnegie 
Foundation  for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching. 

Finally,  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  is 
intended  to  facilitate  pure  scientific  research.  We  will 
glance  summarily  at  its  organization. 

Its  headquarters  are  at  Washington  and  it  is  directed 
by  a  president,  Mr.  R.  Woodward,  and  a  board  of 
trustees  including  twenty-four  members;  scientists,  like 
Messrs.  S.  Flexner,  C.  D.  Walcott,  Welsh,  etc.;  busi- 
ness men,  financiers,  or  men  prominent  in  politics,  like 
Mr.  Elihu  Root.  ...  It  was  founded  in  1902;  in 
1912  it  had  received  from  Mr.  Carnegie  $22,000,000, 
invested  at  five  per  cent.  So  it  has  an  income  of  about 
$1,000,000.  Its  aim  is  to  encourage  research  in  the 
broadest  and  most  liberal  manner,  with  a  view  to  the 
discovery  and  application  of  science  to  the  amelioration 
of  human  conditions.  The  means  is,  "to  discover  the 

183 


184    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

exceptionally  endowed  men  in  all  specialties,  whatever 
may  be  their  origin,  whether  they  are  in  the  schools  or 
outside,  and  to  give  them  the  necessary  financial  aid 
in  order  to  permit  them  to  accomplish  the  work  for 
which  they  seem  specially  designed."  Indeed  Mr.  Car- 
negie likes  to  say  that  his  personal  successes  are  due  to 
the  fact  that  he  knew  how  to  find  and  put  at  the  head  of 
his  enterprises,  men  better  endowed  than  himself. 

The  organization  is  composed  of  an  administrative 
division  and  a  publication  division,  both  at  Washington, 
of  a  series  of  laboratories  created  by  the  institution  at 
diverse  points,  and  finally  of  subsidies  given  to  various 
scientists,  working  in  universities  or  in  other  estab- 
lishments. 

Actually  the  Carnegie  Institution  has  created  ten 
special  research  departments,  listed  below,  with  the 
sums  which  were  devoted  to  them  in  1913. 

1.  Department  of  botanical  researches $37,905 

2.  Experimental  station  of  researches  on  evolution 37,477 

3.  Geophysical  laboratory 75,000 

4.  Marine  biological  station,  Tortugas  Islands 18,000 

5.  Department  of  southern  hemisphere  astrometry 26,316 

6.  Nutrition  laboratory 48,539 

7.  Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory,  California 254,075 

8.  Department  of  terrestrial  magnetism 97,810 

9.  Department  of  economic  and  sociological  sciences.  .  .  .  12,500 
10.  Department  of  historical  researches 12,500 

The  total  grants  to  these  departments,  which  were 
$649,222  in  1913,  were  $732,000  in  1914.  Let  us  see 
rapidly  how  each  of  them  is  constituted. 

Department  of  botanical  researches.  —  It  is  composed 
of  a  laboratory  of  desert  biology,  established  in  1905, 
at  Tucson,  Arizona,  and  directed  by  Mr.  D.  T.  Mac- 
Dougal.  At  Tucson,  it  has  over  nine  hundred  acres  of 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  185 

land,  and  reserves  in  the  mountains  besides;  it  has  as 
an  annex,  several  experimental  stations,  situated  at 
diverse  points  of  the  southwestern  desert,  at  altitudes 
between  sea-level  (Carmel,  Salton  Sea,  CaL),  and  seven 
thousand  eight  hundred  feet  (Santa  Catalina,  Ariz.). 
These  laboratories  have  published  important  studies  on 
vegetable  chemistry,  on  the  relations  of  plants  to  water, 
the  distribution  and  dissemination  of  desert  plants.  It 
is  certainly  one  of  the  most  original  establishments  for 
botanical  research  in  existence.  It  lends  itself  to  re- 
searches, not  only  on  plants,  but  also  on  animals.  Mr. 
W.  L.  Tower  of  Chicago  carried  out  in  part  there  his 
important  researches  on  the  Chrysomelidae  (Lepti- 
molarsa) . 

The  experimental  station  for  researches  on  evolution  is 
located  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  quite  near 
New  York,  and  it  is  directed  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Davenport, 
who  received  me  there  with  the  greatest  kindness.  It 
occupies  two  acres  of  land,  and  includes  various  zoolog- 
ical and  botanical  laboratories,  an  insectarium,  etc. 
Heredity,  variation,  the  determination  of  sex,  and  the 
various  problems  of  general  biology,  whether  on  plants 
or  animals,  are  especially  studied  there.  The  equip- 
ment permits  studies  on  various  animals,  or  vegetable 
species.  The  staff  of  the  station  includes,  besides  the 
director,  Mr.  Davenport,  various  scientists,  such  as 
Mr.  O'Riddle,  who  is  continuing  Mr.  Whitman's  re- 
searches on  the  determination  of  sex  in  pigeons,  Mr. 
Blakeslee,  well-known  for  his  works  on  the  sexuality  of 
the  Mucorineae,  Mr.  Banta,  Mr.  Goodale,  the  botanist 
Shull,  etc.1 

1  Mr.  Davenport  also  directs  an  institution  independent  of  the  preceding, 
and  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  although  established  in  the  immediate 


186    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  geophysical  laboratory  is  located  at  Washington, 
and  directed  by  Mr.  A.  L.  Day.  Researches  of  con- 
siderable importance  for  the  knowledge  of  the  formation 
of  the  earth's  crust  have  come  from  it.  A  flood  of  new 
light  has  been  thrown  on  the  genesis  of  the  siliceous 
rocks  and  the  formation  of  their  elements,  in  particular 
of  the  whole  series  of  feldspaths,  has  been  explained  by 
the  laws  of  physical  chemistry.  What  especially  char- 
acterizes the  activity  of  the  laboratory  is  that  it  is 
working  on  a  vast  program  in  a  methodical  manner, 
coordinating  the  endeavors  of  the  scientists  who  belong 
to  it.  It  is  a  fine  example  of  team  work.  Mr.  Day  and 
his  collaborators  have  made,  in  these  last  years,  some 
remarkable  observations  on  the  lava  flows  of  the  vol- 
cano Kilauea  in  the  Hawaiian  islands,  and  in  particular 
on  the  presence  of  water  vapor  in  these  lava  flows. 

The  geophysical  laboratory,  through  the  importance 
of  the  results  which  have  come  from  it,  and  through  its 
equipment,  is  an  establishment  today  unique  in  its 
specialty.  It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  convincing 
examples  of  the  fecundity  of  the  Carnegie  foundations, 
and  it  shows  the  returns  which  can  be  had  from  large 
grants  of  money  in  the  hands  of  a  skilful  director.  As 
may  be  seen  from  the  figures  given,  it  has  considerable 
resources  at  its  disposal  ($75,000). 

The  Marine  Biological  Station  of  the  Tortugas  Islands 
is  directed  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Mayer.  It  is  intended  for  the 
exploration  of  marine  nature  in  the  tropics,  and  for  the 

neighborhood,  and  devoted  to  eugenics.  He  gathers  in  this  institute  the 
most  varied  statistics  on  heredity  in  man,  secured  chiefly  from  inquiries  and 
tabulated  on  filing  cards.  The  latter  are  then  analyzed,  taken  apart  in  mul- 
tiple entries,  classified,  and  put  at  the  disposition  of  investigators.  This 
institute  (Eugenics  Record  Office),  spends  large  sums  annually  (about  $25,000), 
furnished  by  gifts,  in  particular  by  Mrs.  E.  H.  Harriman. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  187 

study  of  the  biology  of  the  coral  reefs.  It  is  well- 
equipped,  and  supplied  with  a  good  fishing  fleet.  Un- 
fortunately it  is  rather  difficult  of  access,  and  physical 
life  there  is  rather  hard.  I  believe  I  understood  that 
after  the  war  it  would  perhaps  be  moved  to  one  of  the 
greater  Antilles.  A  large  number  of  interesting  mem- 
oirs have  already  come  from  it,  due  to  biologists  who 
have  come  there  to  work,  and  relative  either  to  the 
fauna  of  the  Tortugas,  or  to  that  of  the  Bahamas,  or 
to  that  of  distant  regions,  like  Torres  Strait,  to  which  an 
expedition  had  been  organized  in  1913  by  Mr.  G.  Mayer. 

The  Department  of  Southern  Hemisphere  Astrometry, 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  L.  Boss,  has  for  its 
object  the  exact  determination  of  the  stars  of  the 
southern  sky,  and  to  this  end  an  observatory  was  estab- 
lished in  1909,  on  the  eastern  plateau  of  the  Andes,  at 
San  Luis,  in  the  Argentine  Republic. 

The  Solar  Observatory  on  Mt.  Wilson,  situated  at  an 
altitude  of  four  thousand  feet,  on  the  mountains  which 
dominate  the  beautiful  city  of  Pasadena,  in  southern 
California,  is  directed  by  Mr.  G.  E.  Hale,  to  whom  we 
owe  researches  of  the  highest  interest  on  the  solar 
spots,  and  the  part  which  magnetic  phenomena  play  in 
them.  These  researches  have  been  carried  out  thanks 
to  the  magnificent  instruments  with  which  the  observa- 
tory has  been  equipped,  and  which  were  in  large  part 
planned  by  Mr.  Hale  himself,  and  thanks  to  the  addi- 
tion of  a  physical  laboratory  to  the  observatory  proper. 
Like  the  Geophysical  Laboratory,  the  Mt.  Wilson  Ob- 
servatory is  today  an  establishment  possessing  technical 
resources  unique  in  the  world,  and  also,  as  has  been 
seen,  having  at  its  disposal  enormous  subsidies  ($254,000 
in  1913). 


188    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  Nutrition  Laboratory  was  erected  in  1907-08, 
at  Boston,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  Har- 
vard Medical  School,  which  furnishes  it  heat,  cold, 
compressed  air,  motive  power,  electricity,  etc.  It  is 
directed  by  Mr.  F.  G.  Benedict.  The  laboratory  is  in- 
tended for  the  continuation  of  researches  which  this 
scientist  had  begun  with  Atwater,  and  which  have 
brought  one  of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the 
study  of  animal  energetics,  that  is,  the  chemical  and 
calorific  exchanges  of  the  organism,  or,  as  it  is  also  called, 
metabolism.  Nutrition  leads  to  problems  of  this  order. 
Whether  it  is  a  question  of  muscular  work,  respiration, 
etc.,  one  is  finally  led  to  measures  of  energy;  measures 
of  heat  thrown  off,  with  the  aid  of  calorimeters;  meas- 
ures of  energy  furnished  by  the  knowledge  of  food  con- 
sumed, work  done,  etc. 

The  field  of  studies  includes  not  only  normal  nutri- 
tion, but  its  pathological  alterations,  in  states  like 
diabetes,  and  naturally  all  the  experimental  modifica- 
tions which  can  be  imagined.  The  great  importance  of 
this  laboratory  is  then  evident,  to  which  thirteen 
scientific  collaborators  are  regularly  attached,  and 
which  has  at  its  disposal,  henceforth,  a  magnificent 
outfit  of  calorimeters,  various  thermometric  appara- 
tus, and  apparatus  for  chemical  analysis,  rooms  ar- 
ranged for  the  study  of  metabolism,  especially  on  man, 
or  on  certain  animals.  The  possibilities  of  utilization 
of  this  laboratory,  for  pure  science  or  social  applica- 
tions, are  so  to  speak  unlimited,  since  they  cover  the 
whole  field  of  the  physiology  of  nutrition.  Besides  its 
regular  staff,  it  welcomes  foreign  scientists.  As  has 
been  seen,  its  endowment  is  large  ($48,000  in  1913). 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  189 

The  Department  of  Terrestrial  Magnetism  has  for  a 
director  Mr.  L.  A.  Bauer,  aided  by  fifteen  scientific 
collaborators.  Mr.  Bauer  was  formerly  director  of  the 
United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  (see  below). 
The  department  has  studied  terrestrial  magnetism 
especially  in  the  oceanic  regions.  For  this  purpose,  in 
1908-09,  a  ship  was  built,  entirely  free  from  magnetism 
of  its  own,  and  permitting  measurements  of  high  pre- 
cision —  the  Carnegie,  150  feet  long,  568  tons,  a  sailing 
vessel  with  auxiliary  engine.  This  ship  has  already  made 
long  cruises  in  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and  Indian  Oceans, 
and  besides,  has  carried  out  numerous  researches  on  land, 
in  regions  still  unexplored  from  this  point  of  view. 

Outside  of  these  scientific  establishments  properly 
so-called,  the  Carnegie  institution  has  two  other  de- 
partments, one  of  economic  and  sociological  studies, 
directed  by  Mr.  H.  W.  Farriam,  and  devoted  to  the 
diverse  questions  of  political  economy  of  the  United 
States  (population  and  immigration,  agriculture,  for- 
ests, mines,  manufactures,  transportation,  domestic  and 
foreign  commerce,  banks,  labor,  industrial  organiza- 
tion, social  legislation,  etc.);  the  other,  Historical 
Studies,  busies  itself  especially  with  facilitating,  directly 
or  by  the  publication  of  documents,  researches  on  the 
history  of  America. 

Besides  these  special  departments,  founded  wholly 
new,  and  entirely  sustained  by  it,  the  Carnegie  In- 
stitution distributes  important  grants  to  a  certain 
number  of  scientists  working  in  university  laboratories. 
It  has  thus  made  it  possible  to  conduct  many  important 
researches.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  mention  here  those 
of  Professor  Richards  of  Harvard  on  the  atomic  weights, 


190    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  Mr.  H.  Jones  and  his  students  at  Johns  Hopkins  on 
solutions,  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Castle  of  Harvard  on  Mendelian 
heredity,  etc.  The  total  of  the  sums  devoted  to  these 
grants,  in  1913,  was  $200,000. 

The  Carnegie  Institution,  then  at  the  end  of  fifteen 
years  of  existence,  has  already  effected  a  number  of 
important  researches,  in  extremely  diverse  sciences,  and 
it  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  satisfactory  return, 
which  depends  above  all  on  the  skilful  choice  of  men. 
It  will  be  noted  that  it  has  been  able  to  build  afresh, 
with  all  the  technical  resources  desirable,  new  labora- 
tories for  the  study  of  new  questions.  That  is  a  great 
advantage  over  the  methods  to  which  we  are  generally 
reduced  in  Europe,  and  which  consist  in  using  old  in- 
stitutions for  new  needs.  The  equipment,  and  the  staff 
no  less,  cannot  be  sufficiently  modernized  for  them. 
However,  certain  persons  regret  that  it  has  bent  its 
endeavors  especially  to  the  foundation  of  permanent 
establishments,  whose  budget  is  very  heavy,  instead 
of  remaining  entirely  faithful  to  the  original  idea, 
which  was  to  discover  men,  and  give  them,  for  the  time 
being,  the  broadest  facilities. 

It  represents  actually  one  of  the  vastest  and  most 
fecund  organizations  of  research.  Its  annual  budget  is 
a  little  more  than  $1,000,000. 

2.  ROCKEFELLER  INSTITUTE  FOR  MEDICAL 
RESEARCH,  OF  NEW  YORK 

Like  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  a  son  of  his  works,  Mr. 
J.  D.  Rockefeller,  like  him,  devoted  a  considerable  part 
of  his  large  fortune  to  educational  works  or  scientific 
studies.  He  is  the  principal  founder  of  the  University 
of  Chicago,  which  has  received  $25,000,000  from  him. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  191 

His  name  is  found  among  the  big  donors  to  the  principal 
universities;  thus  he  contributed  to  the  building  of  the 
Harvard  Medical  School. 

One  of  his  principal  foundations  is  the  Institute  of 
experimental  medicine  which  bears  his  name,  at  New 
York.  One  can  say  that  its  plan  is  modeled  after  that 
of  our  Pasteur  Institute.  It  is  a  collection  of  research 
laboratories,  centred  about  the  experimental  study  of 
infectious  diseases,  and  extending  to  all  parts  of  Biology 
which  can  bring  light  to  bear  on  them. 

The  foundation  was  decided  on  in  1901.  Two  hundred 
thousand  dollars  were  devoted  to  preliminary  studies  on 
similar  establishments  in  Europe;  studies  which  were 
made  by  Mr.  S.  Flexner,  now  director  of  the  Institute. 

The  plans  were  approved  in  1904,  and  the  Institute 
dedicated  in  1906.  It  originally  consisted  of  one  build- 
ing. It  has  already  been  expanded  by  the  addition  of  a 
hospital,  and  of  a  second  group  of  laboratories,  whose 
construction  was  finished  in  1916.  It  covers  a  rather 
large  area,  on  the  banks  of  the  East  River,  around  which 
large  open  spaces  are  laid  out  in  all  directions.  The 
actual  endowment  (capital)  of  the  Institute  is  about 
$12,500,000,  representing  an  income  of  about  $600,000.* 

The  Institute  includes  a  number  of  distinct  labora- 
tories or  departments;  pathology,  bacteriology,  phys- 
iological and  pathological  chemistry,  physiology  and 
comparative  zoology,  pharmacology,  experimental  ther- 
apeutics. The  staff  includes  several  men  of  great  ability, 
and  numerous  works  of  considerable  importance  have 

1  The  French  newspapers  announced,  in  the  last  days  of  May,  1917,  that 
Mr.  Rockefeller  was  making  a  very  large  donation  for  the  reconstitution  of 
the  regions  devastated  by  the  war,  and  that  at  the  same  time  he  was  adding 
$25,000,000  to  the  endowment  of  the  Rockefeller  Institute  of  New  York. 


192    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

already  come  from  the  laboratories.  It  will  suffice  to 
recall  the  researches  of  Mr.  Flexner  and  his  students 
on  cerebrospinal  meningitis  and  its  serotherapy,  and  on 
infantile  paralysis;  Mr.  A.  Carrel's  work  on  the  surgery 
of  blood  vessels,  and  the  culture  of  tissues;  that  of  the 
physiologist,  J.  Loeb,  on  experimental  parthenogenesis, 
and  many  problems  of  general  physiology. 

The  Rockefeller  Institute  has  as  an  annex,  a  little 
laboratory  for  Mr.  J.  Loeb  at  Wood's  Hole,  Mass.,  ad- 
jacent to  that  which  was  considered  above,  and  especi- 
ally, a  large  laboratory  for  animal  pathology,  which 
was  in  construction  at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  in  1916,  and 
whose  director  will  be  Mr.  Theobald  Smith,  former 
Harvard  professor  and  well-known  for  his  discoveries 
on  Texas  fever,  etc. 

The  Rockefeller  Institute  is  self-governing.  The 
scientists  who  compose  it  share,  at  least  largely,  in  its 
direction. 

A  certain  number  of  similar  foundations  should  be 
mentioned  with  the  Rockefeller  Institute,  in  particular 
the  Chicago  Memorial  Institute  for  Infectious  Dis- 
eases, founded  in  1902  and  endowed  with  $2,000,000, 
the  George  Crocker  Foundation  for  the  study  of  Cancer, 
endowed  with  $1,500,000,  the  Tuberculosis  Institute, 
founded  at  Philadelphia  in  1903,  and  others. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  NATURAL  HISTORY  MUSEUMS  AND  IN 

PARTICULAR  THE  AMERICAN   MUSEUM  OF 

NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  NEW  YORK 


great  museums  form  another  group  devoted  to 
•*•  research  proper,  whose  modern  equipment,  en- 
dowment in  money  and  in  men,  make  them  especially 
interesting  for  the  European  to  study.  One  finds  in 
them  the  boldness  and  breadth  of  conception,  and 
the  rapidity  of  execution,  which  are  characteristic  of 
American  enterprises.  Also  and  above  all,  one  finds  in 
them  the  enthusiasm  which  the  public  and  especially 
the  wealthy  class  puts  into  the  development  of  these  es- 
tablishments. They  are  successfully  adapted  to  their 
double  role,  the  education  of  the  great  public,  and 
scientific  progress. 

The  majority  are  of  relatively  recent  creation,  and 
their  development  has  been  much  accelerated  of  late 
years,  so  that  there  is  the  following  result  :  L 

Number  of  Museums  Cost 

Founded  of  Buildings 

1840-49  .............................  1  $200,000 

1850-59  .............................  2  34,000 

1860-69  .............................  6  1,277,000 

1870-79  .............................  7  6,030,000 

1880-89  .............................  5  560,000 

1890-99  .............................  20  9,866,000 

1900-09.  .  21  14,224,000 


1  Science,  July  26,  1912. 
193 


194    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  geographical  distribution  of  the  museums  in 
America  seems  interesting  to  summarize : 

Cost  of  Buildings 

New  England  States 19  $4,910,000 

Middle  Atlantic  States 16  17,478,000 

North  Central  States 16  8,466,000 

Washington,  D.  C 2  4,400,000 

Far  West  (Rocky  Mountains  and  Pacific)  10  1,831,000 

Southern  States 2  140,000 

The  National  Museum  at  Washington,  maintained 
out  of  the  federal 1  funds  and  quite  recently  reinstalled 
hi  a  sumptuous  edifice,  must  be  placed  in  the  front  rank. 
This  museum  has  been  enriched  with  extreme  rapidity. 
The  last  report  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  shows 
for  1914-15  the  accession  of  more  than  300,000  speci- 
mens, two-thirds  of  them  for  zoology  and  paleontology. 
It  is  evidently  destined  to  become  the  richest  on  the 
continent.  Among  the  other  great  museums,2  I  shall 
mention  the  Carnegie  Museum  at  Pittsburgh,  which  has 
a  very  important  paleontological  collection,  the  Museum 
of  the  state  of  New  York,  at  Albany,  also  rich  in  this 
respect,  the  Field  Museum  at  Chicago,  and  especially 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  at  New 
York. 

I  will  restrict  myself  here  to  speaking  of  the  last- 
named,  of  which  I  saw  more,  and  which,  moreover  is  the 

1  1915   budget:    $383,500;     furniture,  $25,000;   heating   and  lighting, 
$46,000;  collections,  $300,000;  books,  $2000;  postage,  $500;  care  of  build- 
ings, $10,000. 

2  The  university  museums  should  be  added  to  this  list:   some  are  very 
large,  like  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  at  Harvard.    Others,  less 
extensive,  are  nevertheless  very  rich,  for  certain  divisions.    Such  is  that  of 
Princeton  University,  which  has  magnificent  wealth  for  the  fossil  Mammals, 
thanks  to  the  activity  of  Professor  W.  B.  Scott.   Such  is  also  that  of  Yale, 
which  includes  Marsh's  rich  and  famous  collections,  and  others. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  195 

most  accessible  to  foreigners.  It  is  interesting  for  its 
size,  its  plan,  and  its  working.  It  is  one  of  the  finest 
institutions  of  New  York. 

It  is  situated  quite  near  Central  Park,  and  its  foun- 
dation goes  back  to  1869.  Happily,  it  was  conceived  on 
a  very  large  scale:  only  three-fifths  of  the  plan  are 
actually  realized.  Its  financial  working  has  been  based 
on  the  collaboration  of  the  municipality  and  the  public. 
In  fact  the  city  has  given  the  land  and  building,  and 
assured  the  expenses  -of  the  physical  upkeep,  but  it  is 
for  private  initiative  to  provide  the  increase  of  the  col- 
lections. It  is  managed  by  a  board  of  trustees  and  its 
present  president  is  Mr.  H.  F.  Osborn,  the  well-known 
paleontologist.  As  the  prosperity  of  the  museum  de- 
pends in  part  on  the  public,  its  management  does 
everything  possible  to  win  its  favor.  As  is  logical,  the 
museum  is  double;  there  is  the  museum  for  popular 
education,  and  the  scientific  museum  proper.  The  first 
has  been  planned  in  the  same  fashion  as  the  entrance 
hall  of  the  British  Museum  of  Natural  History  at  Lon- 
don. It  does  not  seek  to  pile  up  before  the  eyes  of  the 
overwhelmed  and  bewildered  public,  collections  of  in- 
numerable objects  without  meaning  for  it,  but  to 
present  significant  examples  in  as  self-explanatory  a 
form  as  possible.  Whence,  for  example,  the  system  of 
groups  for  the  animals,  in  which  they  are  replaced  in 
their  biological  environment.  They  are  presented  in 
the  setting  in  which  they  live  in  nature.  The  series  of 
the  groups  of  birds  is  particularly  fine  and  varied.  The 
flamingoes  and  their  nest-making,  leave  an  indellible 
impression  with  whoever  has  seen  them.  Another 
group  represents  a  pool  in  the  New  England  woods  in 
spring,  with  the  commonest  animals  which  dwell  there. 


196    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Still  another  is  a  vertical  section  of  the  beach  sand,  in 
which  the  worms  and  other  types  are  in  place,  as  one 
can  find  them  at  Wood's  Hole.  This  system  is  applied 
to  everything.  The  natural  specimens  are  replaced, 
when  necessary,  by  glass  models,  executed  with  great 
perfection.  Thus  the  visitor  has  before  his  eyes  what 
the  naturalist  sees  in  a  coral  reef,  or  in  any  given  bio- 
logical association.  If  it  is  a  question  of  giving  him  an 
idea  of  microscopic  animals  —  Protozoa  such  as  the 
Radiolaria — they  still  have  recourse  to  drawn  glass 
models,  very  skilfully  executed.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  when  the  specimens  lend  themselves  to  exposition 
and  comprehension,  models  are  not  substituted  for 
them. 

One  of  the  finest  and  best  presented  collections  is 
that  of  the  trees  of  the  United  States.  America  far  sur- 
passes Europe  in  the  beauty  and  variety  of  its  forest 
flora.  Europe  has  only  about  fifty  indigenous  kinds  of 
trees.  North  America  has  five  hundred  of  them,  a  cer- 
tain number  of  which  are  giants  like  the  Sequoias  and 
the  great  Pines  (Pinus  lambertiana,  etc.)  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  forests.  A  series  of  specimens  marvelously 
chosen  from  these  kinds,  and  admirably  presented,  oc- 
cupies a  large  room.  It  is  due  to  the  munificence  of  Mr. 
M.  K.  Jesup.  Explanatory  documents,  tags,  photo- 
graphs, comment  on  all  the  specimens  in  the  most  edu- 
cative manner,  from  the  species  of  the  California  forests 
to  the  Florida  mangrove,  whose  germination  one  can 
follow. 

Vertebrate  paleontology  is  represented  in  this  museum 
by  admirable  material,  results  of  the  great  explorations 
of  Cope,  Osborn  and  other  American  paleontologists. 
The  visitor  marvels  at  the  admirably  restored  skeletons 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  197 

of  the  great  secondary  reptiles;  he  reads  there  without 
difficulty  the  evolution  of  the  Equides  —  from  the 
Eohippus  to  the  horse;  of  the  Titanothera  and  of 
many  families  of  Mammals,  which  is  clearly  explained 
to  him,  always  without  overloading  with  specimens 
among  which  he  would  get  lost.  They  show  him  only 
just  what  is  necessary  in  order  to  understand.  The  mu- 
seum of  researches  and  documents,  which  interests  in- 
vestigators only,  consists  of  stacks  and  laboratories  which 
occupy  the  upper  stories,  where  only  experts  penetrate. 
Perhaps  its  area  is  too  limited  in  relation  to  the  whole. 
The  procedure  adopted  for  exposition,  so  advantageous 
from  the  educational  point  of  view,  requires  an  enormous 
space. 

American  mineralogy  and  ethnography  are  also 
magnificently  represented. 

The  action  of  the  museum  on  the  public  is  not  limited 
to  the  exposition  of  specimens  and  groups.  It  is  com- 
plemented by  a  very  methodical  organization  of  lec- 
tures, and  by  the  gathering  of  an  enormous  collection 
of  projection  slides.  Rooms  and  series  of  slides  are  put 
at  the  disposition  of  school  teachers,  who  can  come  to 
the  museum  to  give  series  of  lectures  to  their  pupils;  or 
of  qualified  persons  for  public  lectures  on  various  scien- 
tific subjects.  Circulating  collections  are  lent  to  the 
primary  schools,  in  order  to  show  the  children  significant 
biological  facts.  The  museum  is  thus  very  popular.  It 
receives  an  enormous  number  of  visitors  (1,043,582  in 
1909),  whom  it  interests  and  really  instructs.  It  is 
open  not  only  during  the  day,  but  about  one  hundred 
and  eighty  evenings  in  a  year,  for  lectures.  In  1909 
the  popular  lectures  had  82,178  auditors,  and  the 
lectures  on  tuberculosis  42,627.  In  July,  1916,  at  the 


198    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

time  of  my  last  stay  in  New  York,  a  congress  of  museum 
directors  was  held  at  the  Museum,  under  the  presidency 
of  Mr.  Osborn. 

The  American  Museum  is,  then,  an  extremely  effica- 
cious instrument  of  popular  education,  and  it  finds,  in 
return,  an  effective  audience  among  the  people.  It 
enrolls  as  members,  by  diverse  titles,  annual  members, 
sustaining  members,  life  members,  fellows,  patrons, 
associate  benefactors  or  benefactors,  whoever  gives 
from  $10  to  $50,000  a  year.  It  has,  especially,  very 
numerous  annual  members,  to  whom  it  distributes  a 
publication  (American  Museum  Journal),  which  in- 
forms them  of  all  the  novelties  on  exhibition.  Besides, 
to  measure  the  aid  which  individuals  bring  to  it,  noth- 
ing is  clearer  than  figures.  In  1909,  of  a  total  expense 
of  $275,419,  $160,000  was  furnished  by  the  city,  and 
$115,000  by  gifts.  From  1901  to  1906,  $932,000  was 
spent  in  explorations  and  increases  of  the  collections, 
which  came  entirely  from  individual  gifts. 

The  consolidated  endowment  of  the  museum  has  re- 
mained relatively  small  till  now.  In  1909  it  was  only  a 
little  more  than  $2,000,000.  But  it  has  recently  re- 
ceived, through  the  will  of  one  of  its  former  presidents, 
Mr.  M.  K.  Jessup,  $6,000,000,  the  income  of  which  is 
to  be  used  for  explorations,  scientific  researches,  and 
publications. 

I  have  emphasized  the  popular  character.  But  its 
true  end  is  the  progress  of  our  scientific  knowledge, 
and  through  its  publications  and  its  expeditions  of 
every  kind,  it  has  effectively  contributed  to  it.  It  is 
above  all  an  institution  of  research  which  fully  realizes 
its  triple  motto:  "For  the  people,  for  education,  for 
science."  In  accord  with  the  constitution  of  the  mu- 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  199 

seum,  the  participation  of  the  public  wholly  assures 
its  more  strictly  scientific  work.  There  is  no  closer  com- 
bination between  a  work  of  public  education  and  of 
science.  In  1910,  at  a  service  commemorative  of  Mr. 
M.  K.  Jessup,  former  president  of  the  museum,  and 
benefactor,  Mr.  Choate  said:  "This  union  of  public 
and  private  responsibility  and  generosity  which  has 
been  the  model  on  which  the  other  similar  institutions 
of  the  city  are  founded,  has  procured  for  New  York 
something  very  superior  both  to  the  entirely  public 
institutions  of  foreign  cities,  and  to  institutions  entirely 
private  in  their  foundation  and  management  which  the 
other  large  cities  of  America  possess." 

I  must  add  that  this  museum,  with  the  other  great 
American  museums,  represents  today,  in  the  natural 
sciences,  a  very  important  scientific  movement;  the 
publications,  bulletins  and  memoirs,  which  come  from 
them,  and  which  cannot  be  enumerated  here,  fully 
attest  it.  For  that,  they  have  the  indispensable  ele- 
ments at  their  disposal;  first,  a  large  income,  permit- 
ting them  to  make  purchases  of  collections  on  occasion, 
and  especially,  to  organize  excavations,  dredging,  or 
expeditions  on  land,  at  various  points.  American  activ- 
ity is  very  great  in  this  regard,  and  almost  always  finds 
the  necessary  resources  easily.  The  collections  gath- 
ered are  brought  in  to  enrich  the  great  museums,  and 
to  furnish  interesting  subjects  for  studies. 

A  second  element,  no  less  indispensable,  is  an  ap- 
propriate staff.  It  must  be  numerous,  for  researches  of 
this  kind  entail  extreme  specialization,  and  consequently 
require  numerous  curators.  In  order  to  have  men  of 
ability,  they  must,  on  the  other  hand,  be  paid  suitably. 
That  also  leads  to  a  financial  question.  Nevertheless 


200    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

it  is  not  the  only  one  in  question.  It  is  chiefly  important 
for  a  museum  to  devote  itself  first  of  all  to  its  proper 
mission,  which  is,  to  gather  collections,  to  make  them 
worth  while,  and  to  assure  their  preservation;  and  not 
to  give  courses  and  lectures.  The  staff  should  be  selected 
for  their  aptitude  and  taste  for  doing  this  kind  of  re- 
search, and  not  for  the  qualities  which  make  the  pro- 
fessor. Finally,  for  the  presentation  of  the  collections, 
a  museum  must  have  numerous  technicians,  and  real 
artists,  when  it  is  a  question  of  reconstituting  fossil 
skeletons,  of  presenting  living  mammals,  of  making 
models  of  microscopic  animals,  of  painting  even  the 
reconstitution  of  extinct  animals.  That  is  what  the 
American  Museum,  among  others,  possesses  at  present. 
The  scientific  personnel  of  the  American  museums 
forms  a  very  large  body,  of  unquestionable  competency. 
They  meet  every  year  in  a  special  congress,  which 
studies  all  scientific  or  professional  questions,  relative 
to  the  organization  of  museums. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  FEDERAL  INSTITUTIONS 
SCIENTIFIC  RESEARCH  AT  WASHINGTON 

The  Smithsonian  Institution.  The  Federal  Scientific  Establishments:  The 
scientific  bureaus  of  the  various  ministries  (agriculture,  commerce,  interior). 
The  Geological  Survey.  Plans  for  the  establishment  of  a  national  university 
at  Washington. 

THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION 

nPHIS  institution,1  established  in  Washington,  is  the 
•*•  oldest  of  the  great  foundations  of  research  in  the 
United  States.  James  Smithson,  an  Englishman,  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  a  friend  of 
Cavendish  and  Arago  died  at  Genoa  in  1829,  bequeath- 
ing his  fortune,  in  the  absence  of  descendants  of  certain 
relatives,  to  the  government  of  the  United  States  and 
charging  it  with  the  organization  of  an  institution  bear- 
ing the  name  of  Smithson,  "for  the  increase  and  diffu- 
sion of  Knowledge  among  men."  It  seems  that  he  got 
the  plan  from  a  phrase  in  the  political  testament  of 
Washington,  where  the  great  man  urges  upon  his  fellow- 
countrymen  the  same  plan  in  the  same  terms.  It  ap- 
pears also  that  he  desired  to  perpetuate  his  name,  in 
compensation  for  the  disappointments  he  had  under- 
gone because  of  the  irregularity  of  his  birth.2 

1  For  its  history,  see  The  Smithsonian  Institution  —  The  History  of  its 
first  half-century,  ed.  by  G.  B.  Goode,  Washington,  1897,  4°,  856  pp. 

2  "The  best  English  blood  flows  in  my  veins"  he  writes;   "through  my 
father,  I  am  a  Northumberland;  and  I  have  royal  blood  from  my  mother. 
But  this  is  of  no  account  to  me.   My  name  will  live  in  the  memory  of  men 
when  the  titles  of  the  Northumberlands  and  the  Percys  will  have  been  ex- 
tinguished and  forgotten."  Quoted  from  The  Smithsonian  Institution,  p.  2. 

201 


202    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  terms  of  the  donation 
lack  precision,  and  as  a  consequence,  the  orientation  of 
the  Institute  has  been  and  still  is  somewhat  uncertain. 
Henry,  who  was  its  first  secretary,  had  considered  giv- 
ing it  the  form  of  a  Museum,  but  believed  that  this 
would  not  correspond  with  Smithson's  intention;  never- 
theless, under  his  successors,  it  is  in  this  direction  that 
it  has  tended,  forming  as  it  did  very  intimate  relations 
with  the  National  Museum  which  for  a  long  while  was 
lodged  in  the  buildings  of  the  Institute.  Even  recently  l 
its  function  has  been  made  the  object  of  discussions. 
Some  would  like  it  to  be  an  institute  of  research;  others 
reply  that  a  Museum  would  fulfill  such  a  function.  It 
has  been  correctly  remarked  that  the  absence  of  pre- 
cision in  the  terms  used  by  Smithson  allowed  great 
freedom  in  the  administration  of  the  institution  and  its 
adaptation  to  conditions  impossible  to  foresee  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century. 

Smithson's  bequest  amounted  to  five  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  dollars  and  by  means  of  other  donations 
the  capital  of  the  Institute  has  been  increased  to  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  almost  all  of  which  is  deposited  at  the 
United  States  Treasury  at  an  interest  of  six  per  cent. 
In  1915  the  Institute  spent  a  hundred  thousand  dollars 
in  all  for  its  own  services  (such  as  $13,569  on  publica- 
tions and  $9,021  on  special  subventions  for  research 
work);  but  it  directs  on  behalf  of  the  government  a 
number  of  scientific  establishments  involving  a  budget 
of  six  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

It  publishes  original  memoirs  (Contributions  to 
Knowledge  and  Miscellaneous  Collections)  and  Annual 
Reports  in  which  it  reprints  works  which  it  considers 

1  Science,  first  and  second  half-year,  1906. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  203 

worth  circulating.  All  this  meets  the  requirements  of 
the  two  objects  of  the  Smithson  donation :  the  progress 
and  diffusion  of  Science.  In  1915  the  total  of  its  pub- 
lications made  up  6,753  pages  with  655  plates,  and  more 
than  132,000  copies  had  been  distributed.  Moreover, 
it  subsidizes  original  research  and  scientific  explorations. 

The  Smithsonian  Institute  has  been  the  cradle  of 
several  federal  scientific  services  which  we  shall  study 
later,  and  it  is  still  intimately  connected  with  the  Na- 
tional Museum,  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology  and 
the  Observatory  of  Physical  Astronomy.  To  it  is  en- 
trusted the  service  of  International  Exchanges  and  of 
American  participation  in  international  scientific  work 
such  as  the  International  Catalogue  of  Scientific  Litera- 
ture. Its  library  has  been  merged  with  the  Congres- 
sional Library,  of  which  latter  it  forms  one  of  the 
principal  parts  and  represents  today  more  than  half  a 
million  volumes. 

Accordingly  the  Smithsonian  Institute  has  a  rather 
slender  capital  in  comparison  with  that  of  certain  of  the 
establishments  described  above  and  it  disposes  of  very 
limited  means  for  the  organization  of  research. 

THE  FEDERAL  SCIENTIFIC  SERVICES 

The  Federal  Government,  which  controls  but  a  small 
part  of  the  public  life  of  the  United  States  because  of  the 
considerable  sovereignty  of  each  individual  state,  has 
nevertheless  been  able  to  develop  certain  institutions 
out  of  all  proportion  with  those  of  other  countries,  this 
being  particularly  true  of  the  scientific  services  attached 
to  the  various  branches  of  its  administration.  During 
the  last  half-century,  it  has  perceived  to  an  admirable 
degree  the  practical  value  of  science  and  has  provided 


204    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  latter  to  an  increasing  extent  every  year  with  ma- 
terial means  of  rendering  it  useful  to  the  country.  It  is 
a  question  not  of  science  for  the  sake  of  science  without 
reference  to  application,  but  of  the  scientific  investiga- 
tion of  practical  questions.1 

Washington,  the  seat  of  all  federal  institutions  has 
become  through  the  development  of  the  governmental 
establishments  in  question,  a  considerable  scientific 
centre.  There  is  a  Washington  science,  sometimes  con- 
trasted with  College  science,  the  science  of  the  universi- 
ties, not  without  a  slight  flavor  of  disdain.  In  reality, 
both  of  them  reflect,  as  is  natural,  professional  peculiari- 
ties. Their  points  of  view  are  different.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  administrative  and  on  the  other  the  peda- 
gogical atmosphere  exert  an  influence  over  and  mani- 
fest themselves  among  the  mediocre  element  in  each  of 
the  two  systems.  The  universities  are  sometimes  in- 
clined to  multiply  their  doctors'  theses  beyond  reason 
in  order  to  demonstrate  their  vitality;  the  administra- 
tive bureaus  on  their  side  tend  to  seek  justification  in 
the  eyes  of  the  community  for  the  credits  allotted  to 
them  in  thick  reports.  But  we  must  not  judge  them 
from  their  defects;  the  important  point  is  that  the 
faith  of  the  federal  government  in  the  practical  value  of 
Science  and  the  application  of  the  latter  in  the  govern- 
mental services  have  without  doubt  helped  to  increase 
in  a  large  measure  the  productivity  of  the  country  and 
to  combat  the  spirit  of  routine. 

1  It  is  very  significant  that  all  the  scientific  services  have  taken  rise  in 
the  various  departments,  that  there  is  no  department  of  public  instruction 
in  existence.  The  federal  services  concerned  with  instruction  of  whatever 
grade  constitute  a  simple  Bureau  (Bureau  of  Education)  under  a  Commis- 
sioner and  not  a  Secretary  of  State.  Every  state  has  its  own  secretary  of 
public  instruction  or  someone  equivalent. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  205 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  BUREAUS  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT 
OF  AGRICULTURE 

This  fact  is  most  obvious  in  the  department  of  Agri- 
culture. Despite  the  great  industrial  development  of 
the  United  States,  agriculture  has  so  far  been  the  great 
source  of  wealth  in  the  country,  and  in  no  country  has 
it  made  a  call  upon  scientific  cooperation  to  the  same 
degree.  The  farmers  resemble  the  French  peasants  very 
little;  especially  today  the  majority  of  them  have  re- 
ceived education  in  colleges  of  agriculture,  even  in  uni- 
versities where  as  we  have  seen  the  teaching  of  the 
sciences  applied  to  agriculture  is  given  great  promi- 
nence. Thus  they  are  apt  to  welcome  any  information  of 
a  scientific  nature  that  may  be  offered  to  them. 

Now,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  embraces 
Bureaus  corresponding  to  the  various  aspects  of  agri- 
cultural labor;  these  are  veritable  administrative  estab- 
lishments of  which  the  total  comprises  actually  more 
than  thirteen  thousand  government  employees  and  a 
budget  of  twenty  million  dollars.  In  these  bureaus, 
the  scientific  services  play  a  very  considerable  part. 

They  are  as  follows,  along  with  their  financial  pro- 
vision for  1913-1914: 

Weather  Bureau $1,707,610 

Bureau  of  Animal  Husbandry 2,031,196 

"         Plant  Industry 2,667,995 

"         Chemistry 1.058,140 

"         Soils 334,020 

"         Entomology 742,210 

"         Biological  Survey 170,990 

Forest  Service 5,399,670 

These  figures  have  nothing  stereotyped  about  them; 
they  go  on  increasing  almost  regularly  with  every 


206    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

budget.   The  endowment  of  the  department  of  agricul- 
ture has  passed  through  the  following  stages: 

Year  1870 $156,440 

"  1880 201,000 

"  1890. 1,669,770 

«  1900 3,726,022 

«  1910 12,995,274 

«  1913 22,894,590 

If  we  consider  the  Bureau  of  Entomology  by  itself, 
the  figures  of  recent  years  are  not  less  significant.  In 
1915-16,  when  I  passed  through  Washington,  the  num- 
bers had  already  risen  from  $742,000  in  1913-14  to 
$840,000  and  the  figure  announced  for  the  year  1916- 
17  is  $868,880.  Thus,  the  development  of  the  scientific 
services  continues  at  a  rapid  pace.  From  among  all 
these  considerable  sums,  I  invite  the  reader's  attention 
to  the  endowment  of  entomology  only  as  applied  in 
agriculture:  $860,000,  that  is  to  say  about  4,500,000 
francs!  And  yet  this  figure  does  not  comprise  whatever 
the  individual  states  are  spending  or  the  sums  spent  in 
the  universities  and  the  agricultural  colleges. 

We  cannot  enter  into  even  a  summary  examination  of 
the  work  of  scientific  research  of  these  bureaus.  Their 
program  of  work,  published  each  year  (Programme  of 
Work  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture)  constitutes 
in  1917  a  thick  volume  of  five  hundred  pages;  it  enum- 
erates, article  by  article,  all  the  cases  of  research  pro- 
jected, their  object  and  plan,  the  laboratories  or  executive 
organisms,  the  names  of  the  responsible  persons,  the 
credit  assigned,  etc. 

I  will  first  give  certain  very  brief  details  on  the  Bureau 
of  Entomology,  whose  director,  Mr.  L.  O.  Howard,  very 
courteously  took  me  round,  and  I  urge  the  reader  to 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  207 

study  the  institution  in  greater  detail  in  the  well-in- 
formed book  which  Mr.  P.  Marchal  has  written  about  it.1 

Mr.  L.  O.  Howard  has  two  hundred  and  five  scientific 
assistants  and  more  than  four  hundred  administrative 
clerks  under  his  orders.  The  central  bureau  at  Wash- 
ington is  subdivided  into  eight  sections,  each  one  with 
its  own  head,  and  specializing  in  the  study  of  insects  in- 
jurious to  a  specific  class  of  growths:  insects  injurious, 
1st,  to  cereals  and  to  fodder  farming;  2d,  to  market 
farming  and  to  stocks  in  store;  3d,  to  fruit  trees  with 
caduceus  leaves;  4th,  to  tropical  or  subtropical  farm- 
ing; 5th,  to  southern  farming;  6th,  to  forests;  7th,  the 
fight  against  the  Gypsy  Moth  and  the  Brown-Tail  Moth; 
8th,  section  of  apiculture.  To  each  of  these  sections 
there  correspond  a  certain  number  of  special  labora- 
tories, some  quite  temporary,  others  more  permanent, 
ninety-two  in  all  in  1916. 

These  few  facts  bring  out  the  importance  of  this  or- 
ganization. It  is  conducted  with  the  constant  view  of 
rendering  really  practical  service  to  agriculture.  Sci- 
ence comes  in  chiefly  as  a  factor  of  economic  power; 
nevertheless,  the  progress  of  science  as  such  is  thereby 
greatly  furthered,  were  it  only  by  the  amplitude  of  the 
information  collected  and  the  experiments  made  in  the 
laboratories.  Riley,  one  of  the  predecessors  of  Mr. 
Howard,  succeeded  in  1886  in  checking  the  disastrous 
propagation  of  cochineal  —  Icerya  purchasi  —  which 
destroyed  the  orange  trees  of  California,  by  introducing 
an  Australian  coccinelid  —  Novius  cardinal**  —  which 
exterminates  the  cochineal;  this  method  has  now  be- 
come adopted  everywhere,  and  had  been  applied  with 
success  in  the  region  of  Nice  just  before  the  war.  Simi- 

1  Marchal,  p.  xii,  op.  cit. 


208    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

larly,  Mr.  Howard  has  undertaken  with  success  the 
really  gigantic  experiment  of  acclimatizing,  in  America, 
the  European  parasites  of  the  Gypsy  Moth  (Liparis 
dispar)  and  of  the  Brown-Tail  Moth  (Liparis  chry- 
sorrhed)  in  order  to  check  the  multiplication  of  those 
butterflies  which  ravaged  the  trees  of  New  England. 
This  particular  form  of  warfare  occupies  an  entire  sec- 
tion of  the  Bureau  of  Entomology  with  a  numerous  per- 
sonnel in  special  experimental  stations,  and  consumes 
annually  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  need  of  providing  this  important  institution  with 
an  appropriate  scientific  personnel  has  created  in  the 
United  States  a  considerable  school  of  biological  ento- 
mology, which  has  reacted  on  the  universities  indirectly 
and  has  for  example  contributed  powerfully  to  the 
development  of  biological  instruction  in  Cornell  and  in 
the  universities  of  Illinois,  California,  Nevada,  etc. 

Let  us  now  consider  briefly  the  Bureau  of  Plant  In- 
dustry, taking  up  its  budget  thus  indicating  its  princi- 
pal sections;  the  corresponding  credits  give  an  idea  of 
the  material  importance  of  the  research  undertaken  by 
them. 

Number  of 
Scientific  Personnel     Budget 

1.  Central  Administration 2  $103,880 

2.  Laboratory  of  Vegetable  Pathology 10  35,730 

3.  Collection  of  Vegetable  Pathology 4  12,010 

4.  Research  on  the  diseases  of  fruits 19  69,395 

5.  Destruction  of  citrus-canker 335,715 

6.  Research  on  forest-pathology 17  92,421 

7.  Research  on  the  maladies  of  cotton,  tubercles  and 

fodder  plants 14  68,920 

8.  Research  on  the  physiology  and  culture  of  culti- 

vated plants 8  58,840 

9.  Research  on  the  nutrition  of  plants 10,950 

10.  Research  on  the  fertility  of  soils 20  36,600 

11.  Research  on  the  acclimation  of  plants  of  culture.  . .         13  47,020 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 


209 


Number  of 
Scientific  Personnel 


12.  Research  on  medicinal  and  poisonous  plants  and 

on  the  fermentation  of  plants 

13.  Research  on  agricultural  technology 

14.  Research  on  plants  with  textile  fibres 

15.  Research    on    grains    (sampling,    manipulation, 

transport,  etc.) 

16.  Research  on  cereals  and  their  maladies 

17.  Research  on  maize 

18.  Research  on  tobacco 

19.  Research  on  the  plants  which  yield  paper 

20.  Research  on  the  resistance  of  plants  to  alkalis  and 

drought 

21.  Research  on  beet  sugar 

22.  Research  on  economic  and  systematic  botany. .  .  . 

23.  Research  on  dry-land  agriculture 

24.  Research  on  irrigation  in  the  West 

25.  Research  on  pomology 

26.  Research  on  horticulture  and  market-gardening.  . 

27.  Experimental  farm  of  Arlington 

28.  Experimental  garden  and  hot-house,  Washington, 

D.  C 

29.  Research  on  the  introduction  of  grains  and  foreign 

plants 

30.  Research  on  fodder 

31.  Distribution  of  seed  for  experimental  purposes.  .  .  . 

32.  Practical  lectures.  . 


19 
4 

2 

42 
40 
12 
15 
3 

5 
10 

7 

30 
12 

39 


17 

21 

10 


Budget 

$65,180 

25,220 

9,830 

79,000 
140,585 
42,380 
31,400 
13,960 

24,580 
42,395 
34,560 

167,120 
88,980 

128,147 
80,333 
29,880 

54,590 

107,080 
92,980 

338,780 
40,000 


398    $2,488,461 


Each  of  these  thirty-one  subdivisions  is  directed  by  a 
qualified  scientist,  among  whom  we  may  mention 
Messrs.  W.  T.  Swingle,  W.  A.  Orton,  D.  Fairchild,  and 
the  total  represents,  as  is  obvious,  about  four  hundred 
scientific  workers.1 

All  these  items  of  expense  concern  research  as  carried 
out  for  the  most  part  in  special  laboratories  or  in  labora- 
tories of  agricultural  colleges  or  in  experimental  stations. 
Almost  all  the  experiments  are  continued  for  a  series 

1  The  personnel  includes  numerous  women. 


210    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  years.  To  take  an  example,  since  1904  the  bureau 
has  been  carrying  out  methodical  experiments  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  California  on  caprification  with  a  view  to 
introducing  the  cultivation  of  Smyrna  figs.  Last  year, 
the  results  were  no  less  than  a  production  of  6400  tons. 
To  the  sole  study  of  the  bacteroids  of  leguminous  plants 
$13,120  were  allotted  in  1916-17.  The  investigations 
upon  fruits,  upon  the  acclimatization  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  varieties  and  new  species  are  of  particular 
interest.  But  it  is  impossible  to  enter  into  details 
here. 

The  Bureau  of  Animal  Husbandry  does  a  similar  work 
of  research  on  domestic  animals,  their  products,  their 
maladies,  and  especially  on  all  that  is  related  to  their 
economic  value.  The  investigations  with  respect  to  the 
milk  industry  only  entailed,  in  1916-17,  a  credit  of 
$303,270.  As  an  illustration,  I  may  mention  such  sub- 
jects as  the  study  of  metabolism  in  milch-cows,  carried 
out  in  cooperation  with  the  Pennsylvania  State  College 
of  Agriculture  by  Mr.  H.  P.  Armsby,  to  whom  a  sum  of 
$3500  had  been  assigned  for  that  purpose.  There  is  a 
credit  of  $452,880  for  the  fight  against  the  diseases  of 
animals;  in  1916-17,  a  sum  of  $593,160  was  spent  for 
the  destruction  of  the  ticks  that  live  on  the  Bovidae. 
Scientific  researches  on  the  various  diseases  of  cattle 
are  endowed  with  a  sum  of  $177,160. 

The  Bureau  of  Chemistry  and  the  Bureau  of  Soils  are 
purely  scientific  bureaus.  Of  great  interest  is  the  Bureau 
of  Biological  Survey  which  studies  all  the  problems  con- 
cerning the  Mammals  and  wild  birds,  is  occupied  with 
the  protection  of  game  and  with  the  care  of  the  terri- 
torial reservations  for  the  big  animals  such  as  the  bison, 
and  studies  the  behaviour  of  animals  whether  indige- 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

nous  or  immigrant,  the  distribution  of  the  various 
species,  and  the  migrations  of  birds  ($3,750).  Its  en- 
dowment was  $614,530  for  1916-17. 

BUREAUS  ATTACHED  TO  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF 
COMMERCE 

Three  great  scientific  agencies  are  attached  to  this 
department:  the  Bureau  of  Fisheries,  the  Bureau  of 
Standards  and  the  U.  S.  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey. 

1.  Bureau  of  Fisheries.  —  Among  the  functions  of  the 
Bureau  of  Fisheries  is  the  economic  study  of  both  sea 
and  fresh  water  throughout  the  United  States  and 
Alaska;  and  one  of  its  principal  aims  is  to  increase  their 
yield  by  the  application  of  scientific  methods  to  all  the 
biological  questions  concerning  aquatic  animals  useful 
to  man.  Its  program  is  therefore  very  varied:  sea- 
fishery;  study  of  the  development  and  habits  of  sea 
fish;  the  breeding  of  fish  in  the  sea  or  in  fresh  waters; 
the  study  under  the  same  conditions  of  the  edible  mol- 
luscs and  crustaceans;  the  stocking  of  fresh  water;  not 
to  mention  special  questions  such  as  all  that  concerns 
the  fur  seals  of  the  Pribiloff  Isles  in  Behring's  Sea. 

The  budget  of  this  bureau  was  $1,132,390  in  1912; 
$944,790  in  1913;  $1,047,180  in  1914.  These  sums  in- 
clude about  $400,000  for  salaries  and  wages,  $335,000 
for  the  propagation  of  edible  fish,  and  $60,000  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  fishing  boats. 

As  was  mentioned  above,  the  Bureau  is  provided  with 
two  maritime  stations  for  scientific  studies,  one  at 
Wood's  Hole,  Mass.,  and  the  other  at  Beaufort,  S.  C.; 
it  is  now  installing  a  third  to  the  south  of  Florida,  at 
Key  West,  and  is  planning  another  for  the  Pacific.  It 
also  has  another  large  station  for  the  biological  study 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  fresh  water,  on  the  Mississippi,  at  Fairport,  Iowa. 
Moreover,  there  are  several  stations  for  fish  breeding 
of  a  practical  nature,  and  similar  operations.  For  all 
work  at  sea,  there  is  a  large  steamboat,  the  Albatross, 
built  for  distant  and  prolonged  voyages  and  capable  of 
undertaking  the  deepest  kind  of  dredging  operations; 
a  motorboat,  the  Fish  Hawk,  and  other  less  consider- 
able boats. 

The  Bureau  of  Fisheries  has  frequently  organized 
oceanographical  expeditions  on  a  great  scale  on  the 
Albatross  and  it  has  been  led  to  a  profound  study  of 
various  biological  questions.  Thus  it  was  that  recently 
a  mission  organized  under  its  auspices  and  consisting 
of  Messrs.  G.  H.  Parker,  W.  H.  Osgood,  and  E.  A. 
Feeble  visited  the  Fribiloff  Islands  in  the  summer  of 
1914  in  order  to  study  biological  problems  on  the  spot 
and  collect  statistics  on  the  herds  of  fur  seals  (Callor- 
hinus  alascanus).  The  story  of  this  expedition  is  most 
interesting  and  was  published  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
Bureau  which  forms  every  year  a  volume  of  different 
biological  monographs. 

2.  The  National  Bureau  of  Standards.  —  This  Bureau, 
established  in  1901  and  directed  by  Mr.  S.  W.  Stratton, 
has  a  role  analogous  to  that  of  the  National  Physical 
Laboratory  in  England,  to  the  Technische  and  Physika- 
lische  Reichsanstalt  of  Berlin  and  to  what  ought  to  be 
the  Experimental  Laboratory  of  the  Conservatory  of  Arts 
and  Crafts  in  Paris.  It  keeps  the  standard  measures, 
and  makes  all  the  measurements  and  tests  of  instru- 
ments. It  controls  the  fundamental  measures  of  length, 
time,  and  mass,  and  the  electric  measures.  It  also  under- 
takes on  behalf  of  the  government  measurements  of 
quality,  to  this  end  incessantly  perfecting  the  methods  of 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  213 

measurement  and  weighing  or  inventing  new  ones.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  give  appropriate  examples  with- 
out entering  into  long  technical  details. 

This  last  category  of  measurements  is  undertaken 
only  for  the  government.  In  order  to  avoid  putting 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  private  initiative,  non-official 
experimental  laboratories  have  been  left  entirely  free. 

The  Bureau  of  Standards  aims  further  to  determine 
the  value  of  physical  constants  that  are  needed  in 
industry. 

Its  personnel  is  distributed  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  scientific  work  (general  measurement,  electricity, 
heat  and  thermometry,  optics,  chemistry,  metallurgy) 
and  in  1915  consisted  of  two  hundred  thirty-three  mem- 
bers of  whom  a  hundred  and  forty-five  were  scientific 
workers. 

The  building  in  which  it  is  housed  cost  one  million 
dollars  in  construction  expenses  and  half  a  million  for 
the  furnishing.  The  total  budget  amounted  to  $543,645 
in  1913,  to  $637,015  in  1914,  and  to  $695,811  in  1915.1 

In  1915  the  Bureau  had  carried  out  116,204  tests  and 
printed  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  publications  of 
which  forty-six  were  new,  comprising  twenty-six  sci- 
entific and  technical  memoirs.  By  the  very  nature  of 
the  practical  services  which  it  is  destined  to  render, 
this  bureau  is  led  to  carry  on  important  scientific  en- 
quiries in  the  different  branches  of  Physics. 

3.  The  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  at- 
tached to  the  department  of  Commerce  since  1903, 
dates  from  1807.  It  is  a  great  geodetic  and  hydro- 
graphic  institution  concerned  principally  with  triangula- 
tion,  astronomical  measurement,  the  study  of  terrestrial 

1  Of  these  $293,500  for  running  expenses  and  salaries. 


214    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

magnetism,  topography,  the  study  of  tides  and  tidal 
currents,  the  survey  of  the  country,  the  study  of  gravity 
and  geodesy  in  general.  It  is  thus  an  agency  contribut- 
ing to  the  progress  of  science.  It  used  to  be  a  branch  of 
the  Geological  Survey  but  is  now  separated  from  it. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR 

The  United  States  Geological  Survey 

The  Geological  Survey  attached  to  the  Department  of 
the  Interior  is  a  scientific  institution  of  considerable 
importance  and  in  its  actual  form,  unified  as  it  is  for 
the  whole  of  the  United  States,  it  dates  from  1879. 
Before  this  time,  there  existed  analogous  organizations 
limited  to  particular  portions  of  American  territory. 
These  partial  Surveys  have  accomplished  a  remarkable 
work  in  geology  and  geography.  The  exploration  of  the 
Grand  Canyon  of  Colorado  by  Major  Powell  is  a  clas- 
sical example.  The  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  of  which 
mention  was  made  above  was  only  recently  detached 
from  the  Survey  in  question. 

The  function  of  the  Geological  Survey  is  to  secure  an 
inventory  and  a  classification  of  the  lands,  waters,  and 
various  mineral  products  of  the  national  soil. 

To  give  an  idea  of  its  recent  development  and  present 
resources  we  will  mention  that  in  1879  it  was  endowed 
with  $106,000,  in  1889  with  $801,240,  in  1903-04  with 
$1,377,820,  and  in  1914-15  with  $1,620,520.  During 
the  last  year,  its  personnel  consisted  of  nine  hundred 
and  nine  workers. 

Its  program,  which  is  at  once  scientific  and  practical, 
may  be  discovered  from  its  subdivisions :  the  survey  of 
Alaska,  mines  and  metallurgical  resources,  chemical 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

and  physical  research,  topography,  geography,  and 
forests,  hydrography  (study  of  rivers),  hydrology  (sub- 
terranean waters),  utilization  of  surface  waters  (hydro- 
economics),  publications. 

The  publications  of  the  Geological  Survey  are  very 
great  in  number;  already  six  hundred  bulletins  have 
appeared  many  of  them  with  more  than  a  hundred  pages 
respectively,  and  also  sixty  large  geological  monographs, 
without  counting  the  very  numerous  publications  on 
surface  waters.  Finally,  this  Survey  is  entrusted  with 
the  execution  of  the  general  geological  map  of  the  United 
States,  an  enormous  enterprise  and  still  far  from  accom- 
plishment. During  a  single  year,  in  1914-15,  the  Sur- 
vey edited  sixty-six  publications,  with  21,407  pages  and 
191  maps. 

The  Geological  Survey,  through  its  explorations  and 
publications  may  be  said  to  have  become  an  important 
instrument  in  the  study  of  pure  geology.  And  the  facts 
which  it  has  been  able  to  collect  have  been  a  factor  of 
prime  importance  in  the  economic  development  of  the 
United  States. 

However  specialized  its  field,  it  nevertheless  con- 
tributes to  the  general  education  of  the  public.  To  give 
an  idea  of  the  dissemination  of  scientific  knowledge  ef- 
fected by  these  great  organizations,  I  will  cite  a  case 
from  my  personal  experience.  While  traveling  from 
Chicago  to  San  Diego  on  the  Santa  Fe  Railway,  on  a 
visit  to  the  Grand  Canyon  of  Arizona,  then  going  back 
from  San  Diego  to  San  Francisco  by  the  coast  line,  and 
finally  returning  from  San  Francisco  toward  New  York 
by  Ogden,  the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  Yellowstone  Park, 
I  was  able  to  study  and  appreciate  the  scenery  along  all 
these  lines,  thanks  to  the  recent  publications  of  the 


216    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Geological  Survey,1  which  inform  the  traveler,  for  every 
portion  of  the  line,  of  everything  that  is  worth  seeing 
from  the  train,  from  the  point  of  view  of  physical  geog- 
raphy, geology,  the  natural  resources  of  the  country, 
and  the  recent  history  of  its  colonization.  These  pub- 
lications prove  convincingly  how  science  always  tries 
to  justify  its  usefulness  by  direct  and  tangible  services 
rendered  to  all  the  members  of  the  community. 

The  preceding  list  of  scientific  governmental  estab- 
lishments is  not  complete.  One  should  add  the  National 
Museum,  of  which  mention  was  made  elsewhere,  the 
Bureau  of  Mines,  the  Public  Health  Service,  the  Bureau 
of  Education,  the  Naval  Observatory,  and  finally  the 
Library  of  Congress  which  is  equivalent  to  our  Na- 
tional Library.  This  library,  equipped  luxuriously  and 
yet  in  very  practical  fashion,  offers  considerable  re- 
sources for  scientific  work.  In  1912  it  possessed  more 
than  two  million  volumes,  and  had  a  budget  of  about 
$600,000  of  which  $100,000  were  for  purchases. 

Washington  is  unique  among  American  cities,  and 
something  of  a  paradox  to  Americans,  for  it  has  neither 
commerce  nor  industry  to  justify  its  growth;  it  is  simply 
a  city  of  administration.  Moreover,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  cities  in  the  United  States  built  on  a  very 
original  plan,  the  work  of  a  Frenchman,  L'Enfant,  a 
major  of  the  engineers,  who  had  come  to  America  with 
Lafayette  and  Rochambeau.  Nowadays,  it  has  an  in- 
creasing number  of  marble  palaces  and  its  monuments 
are  rapidly  multiplying. 

As  we  have  just  seen,  Washington  has  also  become  a 

1  Bull.  612.  —  The  Overland  Route  (244  pp.);  613.  —  The  Santa  ¥i  Route 
(194  pp);  614.  —  The  Shasta  Route  and  Coast-line  (142  pp);  with  maps  — 
at  a  scale  of  1/500,000  —  of  all  the  lines  and  many  photographs,  1915. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

considerable  scientific  centre  in  that  its  governmental 
institutions  embrace  scientific  organizations.  From 
among  the  thousand  best  men  of  science  in  the  list  pre- 
pared in  1906  by  Mr.  J.  McK.  Cattell,  one  hundred  and 
nineteen  resided  in  Washington. 

These  considerations  have  given  birth  among  many 
minds  to  the  idea  of  establishing  in  Washington,  rich 
as  it  is  with  so  many  resources,  a  great  National  Uni- 
versity.1 The  plans  vary  as  to  detail  but  are  in  general 
agreed  on  the  point  that  such  a  university  ought  to  be 
of  a  different  type  from  those  already  in  existence.  It 
should  altogether  dispense  with  elementary  education 
and  devote  itself  uniquely  to  scientific  research.  In 
any  case,  instruction  should  be  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
It  should  likewise  dispense  with  all  awards  of  degrees 
and  diplomas.  Above  all,  it  should  constitute  a  better 
utilization  of  the  immense  scientific  resources  of  the 
federal  capital  which  at  the  present  are  being  somewhat 
stifled  by  the  too  great  administrative  atmosphere  of 
the  place.  The  National  University,  says  J.  McK.  Cat- 
tell,  would  be  the  best  instrument  for  uniting  the  ideals 
of  the  democracy  into  a  single  body. 

This  project  was  formulated  chiefly  by  the  presidents 
of  the  state  universities,  who  see  in  it  a  natural  ex- 
tension of  the  conception  on  which  their  own  universi- 
ties are  based.  The  federal  government  would  thus  be 
able  to  produce,  in  the  way  of  a  university,  something 
beyond  the  forces  both  of  the  individual  states,  owing 
to  its  immense  resources,  and  of  the  private  universi- 
ties whatever  their  wealth  and  the  devotion  of  their 
alumni,  or  whatever  the  resources  of  a  Carnegie  or  a 

1  Cf.  Science,  August  16,  1912,  November  29,  1912,  January  17,  1913, 
February  15,  1914. 


218    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Rockefeller.  On  the  other  hand,  the  private  universi- 
ties have  shown  themselves  quite  hostile  to  the  plan, 
seeing  in  it,  with  more  or  less  clearness,  a  threat  against 
themselves  and  in  any  case  an  aggravation  of  the  com- 
petition against  them  by  the  State.  Disregarding  the 
egotistical  element  in  this  opposition,  it  would  none 
the  less  remain  true  that  a  university  too  powerfully 
concentrated  in  Washington  would  have  to  balance  its 
advantages  against  serious  disadvantages.  One  of  the 
favoring  circumstances  in  the  scientific  evolution  of 
the  United  States  has  been  precisely  the  fact  that  intel- 
lectual activity  has  not  been  concentrated  at  a  single 
point,  nor  in  the  hands  of  the  State,  and  that  powerful 
and  completely  autonomous  organizations  still  seem 
capable  of  balancing  one  another. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ACADEMIES  AND  SCIENTIFIC  SOCIETIES 

The  American  Philosophical  Society.  The  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences.  The  National  Academy  of  Sciences:  its  r61e,  composition,  and 
mode  of  elections;  reflections  and  comparisons.  The  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 

NOWADAYS  the  United  States  numbers  many 
academies  and  scientific  societies  whose  role  hardly 
differs  from  that  of  the  analogous  organizations  in 
Europe,  except  perhaps  in  that  the  immensity  of  the 
territory  provides  more  of  a  raison  d'etre  for  academies 
or  local  societies  and  endows  the  large  national  societies 
with  greater  importance  as  a  means  of  coordinating 
scientific  activity. 

Let  us  first  consider  the  oldest  of  these. 

The  dean  of  the  large  scientific  societies  of  the  United 
States,  which  even  today  is  among  those  that  have  most 
prestige,  is  the  American  Philosophical  Society  estab- 
lished in  Philadelphia.  According  to  its  seal,  it  was 
founded  in  1727  and  its  complete  title  is  The  American 
Philosophical  Society,  held  at  Philadelphia  for  promot- 
ing useful  Knowledge.  Benjamin  Franklin  was  its 
founder  and  first  secretary.  The  title  which  it  adopted 
under  his  inspiration  reflects  the  purpose  of  making 
science  useful  to  man.  The  original  program  enumer- 
ated a  long  series  of  possible  undertakings,  including 
"all  experiments  of  a  philosophical  character  which 
might  illuminate  the  nature  of  things,  or  tend  to  in- 
crease the  power  of  man  over  matter,  or  multiply  the 
goods  and  pleasures  of  life."  The  word  "philosophy" 

219 


220    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

is  here  used  in  its  classical  English  sense  so  as  to  mean 
the  total  of  what  we  call  science. 

The  society  was  organized  after  the  model  of  the 
London  Royal  Society.  It  has  been  publishing  Trans- 
actions since  1799,  and  Proceedings  since  1838.  It  has 
a  national  as  well  as  a  local  character.  The  general 
meeting  held  annually  at  Easter  in  Philadelphia  is 
attended  by  a  large  number  of  members  from  various 
parts  of  the  United  States.  I  was  honored  with  an  in- 
vitation in  1916.  In  accordance  with  American  customs, 
besides  communications  presented  by  the  members, 
the  order  of  the  day  includes  a  question  which  a  group 
of  members  have  been  requested  to  study  in  advance 
from  particular  points  of  view,  giving  to  the  meeting 
the  character  of  what  the  Americans  call  a  symposium. 
In  1916  the  topic  was  the  organization  of  peace. 

The  session  comes  to  an  end  with  a  very  cordial 
banquet  of  which  the  menu  was  embroidered  with  a 
sprightly  humor  borrowed  from  the  best  authors.  "I 
believe  in  banquets,  they  lubricate  matters";  ran  a 
quotation  from  Lord  Stowell.  Every  course  becomes 
an  object  of  a  more  or  less  classical  allusion  and  every 
toast  is  announced  in  similar  fashion.  The  toast- 
master  invoked  with  a  verse  from  Troilus  and  Cressida 
the  privilege  of  choosing  his  own  subject.  From  among 
the  other  toasts  and  in  accordance  with  tradition,  the 
first  concerned  Benjamin  Franklin  whose  memory  is 
particularly  vivid  in  the  Eastern  United  States;  in 
1916,  Professor  Trowbridge  of  Princeton,  the  orator  of 
the  day,  evoked  before  his  audience  the  life  of  the 
founder  of  the  society  and  the  decisive  part  which  he 
had  taken  in  the  military  organization  of  the  American 
colonies  in  the  eighteenth  century  —  a  procedure  anal- 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

ogous  to  that  which  was  urged  in  1916  by  the  partisans 
of  preparedness.  The  other  toasts  concerned  sister- 
scientific  societies,  universities,  and  the  society  itself. 
Last  year,  in  the  thoughts  of  almost  all  there  was  the 
thought  of  the  European  war  and  sympathy  for  the 
cause  of  France. 

The  oldest  of  the  American  Academies  after  the 
Philosophical  Society  is  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  founded  in  Boston  in  1780,  on  a 
model  more  similar  to  the  Paris  academies.  It  meets 
once  a  month,  between  October  and  May,  in  a  very 
comfortable  home  which  it  owes  to  an  important  be- 
quest from  Alexander  Agassiz. 

This  society  has  more  of  a  local  character  than  the 
other,  although  the  rather  numerous  list  of  its  members 
covers  the  various  parts  of  the  United  States.  The 
maximum  number  of  its  national  members  is  six  hun- 
dred, divided  into  three  classes  (mathematics  and  phys- 
ical sciences,  natural  sciences  and  physiology,  moral  and 
political  sciences). 

The  Connecticut  Academy  at  New  Haven,  founded 
in  connection  with  Yale  dates  from  1797.  Its  Transac- 
tions dating  from  1866,  contain  the  celebrated  mem- 
oirs of  J.  Willard  Gibbs.  The  Maryland  Academy 
at  Baltimore  was  founded  in  1809,  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences  in  1817,  then  designated  as  a 
lyceum.  Nowadays  all  the  large  cities  have  their  own 
more  or  less  recent  academies.  The  Washington  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  instituted  in  1898,  merits  special  men- 
tion because  it  forms  a  federation  of  sixteen  specialized 
scientific  societies  established  at  the  federal  capital  and 
continuing  in  independent  existence  with  their  own 
individual  publications.  The  former  must  not  be  con- 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

fused  with  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  which  we 
shall  consider  presently. 

THE  NATIONAL  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 

This  Academy  is  equivalent  to  our  own  Academic  des 
Sciences,  or  to  the  London  Royal  Society,  and  we  shall 
consider  it  at  some  length. 

It  is  recent,  having  been  established  by  an  act  of 
Congress  on  March  3,  1863,  during  the  War  of  Seces- 
sion; thus  it  is  barely  more  than  half  a  century  old. 
Its  act  of  establishment  gives  it  an  official  character, 
though  rather  vaguely  so.  In  the  minds  of  its  founders 
it  was  destined  to  serve  as  the  scientific  council  of  the 
government,  furnishing  it  with  reports  on  such  ques- 
tions as  were  put  to  it.  Up  to  a  very  recent  period,  this 
function  had  remained  only  virtual,  as  it  was  being  ful- 
filled by  the  scientific  bureaus  of  the  various  depart- 
ments of  state.  The  present  war  seems  about  to  change 
this  situation.  In  fact,  at  its  session  of  April,  1916,  the 
Academy  unanimously  resolved  to  offer  its  services  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States  in  the  interest  of 
national  preparedness,  and  Mr.  Wilson  accepted  the 
offer.  The  plan  of  the  Academy  is  to  coordinate  the 
scientific  resources  of  the  various  institutions  of  edu- 
cation and  research,  utilizing  them  for  the  prosperity 
and  security  of  the  nation.  The  above-mentioned  reso- 
lution resulted  in  the  creation  of  a  National  Research 
Council,  which  has  already  extended  its  mission  be- 
yond purely  military  problems  so  as  to  cover  all  kinds 
of  industrial  investigations  or  research  in  pure  science.1 

1  The  Council  was  composed  of  scientists  and  expert  engineers  not  only 
from  the  Academy  but  from  the  most  various  institutions.  It  formed  a  cen- 
tral committee  at  Washington  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  G.  E.  Hale,  the 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  223 

However,  until  then  the  Academy  had  existed  much 
more  as  a  private  society  than  as  an  institution  of  the 
state.  It  has  received  no  subsidy,  so  to  speak,  and  is 
supported  by  the  membership  fees.  It  has  no  offices  of 
its  own,  and  it  avails  itself  of  the  hospitality  of  the 
National  Museum  for  its  meetings  at  Washington. 
During  the  last  few  years,  the  construction  of  a  man- 
sion of  its  own  has  often  been  referred  to  as  one  of  its 
most  imperative  requirements,  but  curiously  enough,  in 
this  country  of  rapid  realization  and  rich  and  numerous 
endowments,  the  desire  is  yet  far  from  accomplish- 
ment, although  the  local  academies  are  often  sumptu- 
ously installed.  Federal  institutions  hardly  interest 
individuals  and  Congress  does  not  seem  to  have  much 
affection  for  pure  science.  The  Academy  disposes  of  a 
few  rather  modest  endowments  for  the  carrying  on  of 
research  work.  Alexander  Agassiz,  whose  generosity 
is  evident  in  many  circumstances,  bequeathed  to  it 
some  years  ago  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  use  as  it  pleases. 
Thus  it  is  seen  that  generally  speaking  the  Academy 
holds  a  very  modest  position  from  a  material  point  of 
view  in  relation  to  a  number  of  institutions  of  infinitely 
less  importance. 

Its  composition  has  been  modified  several  times  since 
its  foundation,  when  the  number  of  its  members  was 
fixed  at  fifty;  in  1870  it  was  raised  to  a  hundred  and 
fifty  and  every  year  ten  new  members  were  elected  until 

well-known  astronomer,  and  also  local  committees.  In  attaching  to  itself 
workers  from  outside  its  membership  on  such  a  broad  basis  and  in  a  spirit 
of  complete  equality,  it  has  given  a  very  beautiful  example  of  truly  liberal 
and  scientific  spirit. 

Considerable  sums  have  been  already  placed  at  its  disposal  by  private 
initiative;  $100,000  by  the  Troop  College  of  Technology  of  Pasadena,  and 
$500,000  by  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 


224    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  maximum  was  reached.  By  a  new  modification 
voted  in  1915,  the  maximum  of  members  has  been 
raised  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  and  the  number  of 
annual  elections  to  fifteen. 

In  1916  there  were  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  mem- 
bers distributed  among  the  following  nine  sections: 

Members  in  1916 

1.  Mathematics 11 

2.  Astronomy 11 

3.  Physics  and  Engineering  Sciences 26 

4.  Chemistry 25 

5.  Geology  and  Paleontology 26 

6.  Botany 10 1 

7.  Zoology  and  animal  morphology 20 2 

8.  Physiology  and  pathology 17 3 

9.  Anthropology  and  psychology 10  4 

The  Academy  members  are  scattered  throughout  the 
United  States;  one  recently  published  list  shows  that: 

Eighteen  members  belonged  to  the  federal  scientific  establish- 
ments at  Washington. 

Twenty-three  members  belonged  to  Harvard  University, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

Fifteen  members  belonged  to  Yale  University,  New  Haven. 

1  Messrs.  N.  L.  Britton,  D.  H.  Campbell,  J.  M.  Coulter,  W.  S.  Farlow, 
G.  L.  Goodale,  C.  S.  Sargent,  E.  F.  Smith,  R.  Thaxter,  W.  Trelease. 

2  Messrs.  J.  A.  Allen,  W.  E.  Castle,  E.  G.  Conklin,  W.  H.  Dale,  C.  B. 
Davenport,  H.  H.  Donaldson,  R.  G.  Harrison,  H.  S.  Jennings,  F.  R.  Lillie, 
F.  P.  Mall,  E.  L.  Mark,  C.  H.  Merriam,  T.  H.  Morgan,  E.  S.  Morse,  H.  F. 
Osborn,  G.  H.  Parker,  A.  E.  Verrill,  C.  D.  Walcott,  W.  M.  Wheeler,  and 
E.  B.  Wilson.  Messrs.  L.  O.  Howard  and  R.  Pearl  were  elected  to  this 
section  in  1916. 

3  J.  J.  Abel,  F.  G.  Benedict,  W.  B.  Cannon,  R.  H.  Chittenden,  W.  T. 
Councilman,  S.  Flexner,  W.  H.  Howell,  J.  Loeb,  G.  Lusk,  F.  P.  Mall,  S.  J. 
Meltzer,  L.  B.  Mendel,  T.  M.  Prudden,  Thomas  Smith,  V.  C.  Vaughan, 
W.  H.  Welch,  H.  C.  Wood. 

4  The  total  gives  156  members.    But  a  good  many  of  them  are  counted 
twice  over  as  they  belong  to  two  sections  at  the  same  time  (paleontologists, 
for  example,  to  those  of  geology  and  zoology). 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  225 

Thirteen  members  belonged  to  Chicago  University. 

Eleven  members  belonged  to  Columbia  University,  New  York. 

Ten  members  belonged  to  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore. 

Five  members  belonged  to  the  laboratories  of  the  Carnegie 
Institution. 

Four  members  belonged  to  California  University. 

Three  members  each  belonged  to  the  following  universities: 
Wisconsin,  Madison;  Cornell,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. ;  L.Stanford, 
California;  Clark,  Worcester,  Mass.;  and  to  the  Rocke- 
feller Institute,  New  York. 

Two  members  each  belonged  to  the  following  universities: 
Princeton,  Pennsylvania,  Michigan,  Northwestern 
(Evanston,  111.)  and  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  its  members  are  so  scattered, 
the  Academy  cannot  hold  meetings  at  frequent  inter- 
vals. It  meets  regularly  twice  a  year,  once  at  Easter  at 
Washington,  and  once  toward  the  end  of  November  in 
a  locality  which  changes  every  year.  Beside  business 
matters,  the  meetings  are  devoted  to  individual  com- 
munications from  members  and  to  symposia  on  specific 
questions. 

The  Academy  had  honored  me  by  an  invitation  to 
attend  its  session  of  Easter,  1916,  and  there  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting,  as  also  at  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society,  a  large  number  of  the  most  eminent 
scientific  men  in  America.  Seventy-two  members, 
that  is  to  say,  about  half  the  membership  of  the  Acad- 
emy, attended  the  meeting;  some  had  come  from 
California,  having  crossed  the  entire  continent  in  order 
to  be  present  at  the  meeting.  The  symposium  had  been 
organized  for  that  session  by  Professor  W.  M.  Davis  of 
Harvard  on  the  Methodical  Exploration  of  the  Pacific. 
A  series  of  specialists  expounded  the  plan  of  research 
which  should  be  organized  in  the  fields  of  the  various 
sciences  in  view  of  setting  up  a  program  and  collect- 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ing  funds  later.  The  Academy  is  preparing  an  exten- 
sive and  long  undertaking  in  order  to  study  the  ocean 
and  the  territories  emerging  from  it,  and  to  consider 
problems  of  the  physical  and  natural  sciences,  from 
that  of  gravity  to  those  of  the  nature  of  fauna  and  flora 
and  questions  of  ethnography. 

The  elections  are  carried  out  according  to  a  system 
analogous  to  that  of  the  London  Royal  Society.  A 
person  cannot  become  a  candidate  unless  his  name  has 
already  been  proposed  by  the  majority  of  a  section  or 
of  the  Council  of  the  Academy;  this  allows  discussion 
only  on  men  whose  value  is  recognized  by  the  experts, 
and  the  sections  are  usually  of  a  sufficiently  large  mem- 
bership to  prevent  exclusion  of  anyone  from  personal 
animosity.  It  is  important  to  notice  that  it  is  specialists 
who  designate  members  first,  such  designation  being 
in  fact  the  only  r61e  of  the  sections. 

At  the  annual  Easter  session,  all  the  names  which 
have  been  printed  on  the  list  and  voted  upon  by  the 
sections  are  submitted  to  a  first  vote  by  the  members 
of  the  Academy,  a  vote  which  cannot  include  more  than 
fifteen  names.  The  results  of  this  preliminary  vote  are 
classed  according  to  the  votes  obtained,  and  thus  a  list 
of  preference  is  secured. 

Every  name  in  this  list  is  then  finally  voted  on,  sep- 
arately and  in  the  order  on  the  list  of  preference,  and 
the  candidate  is  declared  elected  when  he  receives  two 
thirds  of  the  votes  given  with  twenty-five  as  a  minimum. 
The  order  on  the  list  of  preference  is  followed  until 
fifteen  have  been  elected  or  until  the  total  number  of 
members  reaches  the  figure  of  two  hundred  and  fifty. 

No  method  of  election  could  change  human  nature 
or  suppress  intrigues,  but  the  one  just  mentioned  ren- 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

ders  intrigues  as  difficult  as  possible,  instead  of  putting 
a  premium  upon  them  —  as  is  the  case  with  our  own 
Academy  —  by  avoiding  the  method  of  direct  appli- 
cation for  candidature.  It  is  infinitely  more  difficult  to 
take  a  group  of  specialists  by  surprise  than  the  member- 
ship of  an  assembly  dominated  by  incompetents;  it  is 
true  that  often  specialists  have  the  defect  of  one-sided 
and  very  exclusive  views  and  that,  like  all  men,  they 
may  be  partial.  But  as  the  greater  part  of  the  sections 
include  twenty  members  respectively,  the  partiality 
of  two  or  three  either  in  favor  or  against  a  given  candi- 
dature has  no  serious  chance  of  causing  the  appearance 
or  the  removal  of  a  name  on  the  first  list  of  candidates. 

To  my  mind,  then,  it  is  a  great  advantage  that  the 
membership  of  the  Academy  should  be  so  numerous. 
Mr.  G.  E.  Hale,  its  very  eminent  foreign  secretary,  has 
devoted  an  extremely  interesting  article  to  the  subject 
of  the  role  of  Academies  in  Science,1  and  has  made  a 
comparative  study  of  the  academies  of  large  countries. 
He  brings  powerful  reasons  for  not  making  academies 
into  very  closed  bodies  and  chooses  in  favor  of  the 
system  of  the  London  Royal  Society  —  the  English 
equivalent  of  our  "Academic  des  Sciences"  — which  has 
four  hundred  and  eighty  members  at  the  present  time. 

In  Europe,  "on  the  continent,"  he  says,  "I  have 
known  of  scientists  who  did  not  form  part  of  academies 
and  did  not  receive  the  aid  of  neighboring  universities,  of 
men  who  could  not  be  elected  into  the  academies  be- 
cause the  number  of  members  of  the  latter  was  too 
limited  or  their  traditions  unchanging.  In  England, 
such  men  would  have  been  admitted  into  the  Royal 

1  Science,  November  14,  1913,  February  6  and  December  25,  1914, 
January  1,  1915. 


228    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Society  as  fellows,  and  the  Society  would  have  been 
happy  to  publish  their  memoirs  or  to  aid  them  in  some 
other  manner.  ...  By  taking  in  a  larger  proportion 
of  young  men  actively  engaged  in  research,  the  Academy 
has  increased  its  contact  with  living  issues,  and  thus 
made  itself  more  truly  representative  of  American  Sci- 
ence. .  .  .  The  purpose  of  an  academy"  —adds  Mr. 
Hale  —  "is  not  merely  to  confer  distinction  by  election 
to  membership,  but  to  constitute  a  working  body." 

The  National  Academy  of  Sciences  aims  to  include  in 
its  membership  all  American  scientists  of  distinction. 
It  has  an  indisputable  moral  authority  in  the  United 
States,  but  exercises  no  effective  power.  Accordingly, 
it  does  not  obstruct  in  the  least,  the  growth  of  the  vari- 
ous scientific  institutions,  the  universities  or  the  estab- 
lishments which  we  have  reviewed  and  each  of  which 
has  an  independent  existence. 

As  can  be  seen,  the  constitution  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences  differs  greatly  from  that  of  our 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  to  me  it  seems  better  adapted 
to  present  conditions.  Our  Academy  bears  the  weight 
of  a  past  which  has  been  glorious  but  which  chains  it 
the  more  so  that,  in  contrast  with  its  American  sister- 
academy,  it  is  not  free  in  its  movements.  It  is  joined 
to  the  other  sections  of  the  Institute,  and  the  latter  not 
being  as  a  whole  founded  to  serve  the  scientific  spirit, 
is  more  given  to  conservatism  than  to  audacious  re- 
forms.1 Whereas  so  many  things  have  been  renovated 

1  A  witticism  of  Monsieur  Paul  Bourget's,  of  some  years  ago,  has  been 
recently  revived  (Leon  Bloy,  Au  seuil  de  I' Apocalypse,  p.  36  and  P.  S.,  Le 
Temps,  August  11,  1916)  to  which  the  war  has  given  a  particularly  piquant 
relief,  and  which  expresses,  as  it  were,  the  paroxysm  of  the  state  of  mind  in 
question:  "Four  barriers,"  wrote  Monsieur  Bourget,  "separate  us  from 
barbarism:  the  great  German  general  staff,  the  English  House  of  Lords, 
the  Institute  of  France,  and  the  Vatican." 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

during  the  century,  the  Institute  still  keeps,  without 
any  retouch  so  to  speak,  the  statutes  granted  to  it  by 
Bonaparte,  with  the  costume  designed  for  the  pompous 
ceremonies  of  the  Consulate.  The  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences retains  its  eleven  sections  with  six  members  each, 
established  in  accordance  with  the  state  of  knowledge 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  of  which  the 
numerical  equality  and  limitations  are  no  longer  in 
harmony  with  the  relations  among  the  sciences  at 
present. 

Up  to  about  five  or  six  years  ago,  it  was  necessary 
that  one  should  live  within  the  circle  of  the  Paris  forti- 
fications in  order  to  be  a  member  at  all,  and  this  simple 
detail  in  the  regulations  inspired  by  a  period  when  there 
were  no  trains  in  existence  has  had  disastrous  conse- 
quences for  the  vitality  of  science  in  the  provinces.  The 
Academy  abolished  this  restriction,  though  tardily  and 
not  without  timidity  and  reservations.  The  discussion 
in  which  the  whole  Institute  took  part  has  shown  the 
excessive  importance,  in  the  eyes  of  a  good  number  of 
its  members,  of  the  possibility  of  depreciating  the 
value  of  the  title  which  they  hold  by  the  multiplication 
of  the  number  of  its  holders  —  a  preoccupation  which 
recalls  the  Duke  of  Saint-Simon  rather  than  modern 
society. 

Under  its  present  constitution,  the  Academy  receives 
almost  all  its  members  too  late,  the  larger  part  after 
the  really  productive  portion  of  their  career  has  passed. 
Thus,  its  influence  which  is  in  fact  very  great,  is  exer- 
cised by  men  the  majority  of  whom  have  already  passed 
the  age  of  enterprise  and  the  outlook  toward  the  future. 
Unavoidably,  a  community  dominated  by  aged  men 
has  the  tendency  to  distrust  whatever  seems  to  upset 


230    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  conceptions  to  which  it  is  accustomed.  Particu- 
larly among  the  sciences,  if  one  looks  back  a  century, 
how  many  successive  transformations  and  cases  of  a 
rise  and  fall  of  theories,  that  seemed  to  explain  every- 
thing, will  one  not  observe  —  of  theories  that  have  had 
their  moment  of  great  fertility  but  that  have  yielded 
their  place  to  others !  The  examples  would  be  numerous 
in  Chemistry,  Physics,  and  Biology.  It  may  be  the 
atomic  theory,  the  optics  of  Fresnel,  and  later  that  of 
Maxwell  and  the  theory  of  the  electrons;  it  may  be 
Darwinism.  The  conceptions  of  tomorrow  do  not  de- 
stroy those  of  yesterday;  but  in  order  to  contemplate 
the  relations  of  phenomena  in  a  new  light  one  must  be 
capable  of  sufficient  self -detachment.  Doubtless,  the 
mind  of  the  scientist  is  aware  of  the  essentially  transi- 
tory and  relative  role  of  the  hypothesis.  Yet  despite 
everything,  one  becomes  attached  to  the  hypothesis  one 
has  employed  during  one's  maturity,  and  one  becomes 
more  or  less  incapable  of  thinking  without  it,  especially 
of  foreseeing  the  fortunes  and  fertility  of  those  theories 
that  are  to  succeed  it.  To  mention  but  one  example 
only,  the  Academy  had  for  long  taken  a  hostile  attitude 
to  the  Darwinian  movement  and  its  section  of  Zoology 
refused  to  receive  Darwin  himself. 

It  is  not  desirable  that  the  scientific  body,  endowed 
as  it  is  with  the  greatest  moral  authority,  be  composed 
chiefly  of  men  who  are  at  the  end  of  their  careers.  Such 
a  condition  leads  inevitably  to  a  gerontocracy  tending 
to  inhibit  the  6lan  of  the  younger  generations.  It  is 
necessary  that  the  latter  should  have  all  the  possible 
means  of  action  at  their  disposal;  even  so,  they  en- 
counter not  a  few  obstacles  to  progress.  Without  at  all 
suggesting  that  scientists  whose  whole  career  has  dem- 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  231 

onstrated  their  excellence  should  be  excluded,  we  urge 
that  these  should  be  associated  in  a  greater  measure 
with  young  men,  and  that  the  latter  should  be  placed 
in  a  lesser  degree  under  the  tutelage  of  their  elders,  or 
more  exactly  of  six  of  their  elders  in  each  science,  who 
are  never,  all  of  them,  great  men  and  who  owing  to  their 
small  number  are  possessed  of  excessive  power. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  access  to  the  Academy  is  so 
restricted  and  that  it  depends  to  such  a  degree  upon 
circumstances,  the  title  of  a  member  of  the  Institute 
becomes  above  all  a  personal  distinction,  the  conse- 
cration of  a  career,  a  sort  of  superior  decoration,  the 
prestige  of  which  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  is  doubtless 
the  sign  of  a  certain  idealism,  but  the  very  difficult 
conquest  of  it  has  the  effect  of  restricting  the  freedom 
in  mental  direction  of  more  than  one  scientist.  There 
are  thus  several  circumstances  to  which  the  Academy 
is  indifferent  in  appearance  but  to  whose  evil  effect  its 
influence  contributes,  in  a  more  or  less  decisive  fashion, 
respecting  the  grading  and  the  selection  of  members, 
that  is  to  say,  in  the  last  analysis,  respecting  scientific 
production. 

The  function  of  the  Academy  nowadays,  since  science 
is  cultivated  outside  it  and  since  many  specialized 
scientific  societies  are  in  existence,  is  above  all  that  of 
coordinating  the  various  sciences  together,  and  this 
would  be  better  accomplished  and  in  a  more  wholesome 
fashion,  were  the  gates  of  the  Academy  more  widely 
open. 

It  appears  to  me  then  that  the  Academy  of  Sciences, 
following  the  example  of  the  Royal  Society  and  the 
American  Academy,  should  enlarge  itself,  redistribute 
its  sections,  determine  for  them  neither  equality  of 


232    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

numbers  nor  any  numerical  limitation,  but  merely  es- 
tablish a  high  maximum  of  membership,  a  maximum 
which  generally  should  not  be  attained.  Vacancies 
would  thus  always  exist  and  the  regular  access  to  mem- 
bership be  possible  to  men  of  value  as  soon  as  their 
excellence  is  duly  ascertained  and  at  the  period  of  their 
full  activity  in  research.  So  far  as  this  point  is  con- 
cerned, a  method  of  election  such  as  the  one  in  vogue  at 
the  Royal  Society  or  at  the  American  Academy  would 
regularize  the  automatic  renewal  and  invigoration  of 
the  institution;  it  would  moreover  have  the  advantage 
of  suppressing  the  direct  application  for  candidature; 
for  it  is  much  more  natural  that  a  scientific  body  should 
discover  of  its  own  accord  the  men  whom  it  would  like 
to  have  as  members. 

THE  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE  ADVANCEMENT 
OF  SCIENCE,  AND  SPECIALIZED  SCIENTIFIC  SOCIETIES 

Nowadays,  scientific  societies  in  the  United  States 
are  extremely  numerous  and  more  and  more  special- 
ized; to  enumerate  them  would  be  out  of  the  question; 
some  are  local,1  others  are  national,  but  owing  to  the 
immense  extent  of  the  country,  the  latter  tend  to 
create  local  sections  in  the  large  cities. 

I  will  say  a  few  words  about  the  role  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  which  is 
equivalent  to  our  own  French  Association.  It  was 
founded  in  1848,  on  the  model  of  the  British  Associa- 

1  Among  the  oldest,  I  will  simply  mention,  so  far  as  biology  is  con- 
cerned, the  Academy  of  Natural  Science  of  Philadelphia  which  celebrated  its 
centenary  in  1912;  it  has  an  important  library  and  its  publications  are 
considerable.  The  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History  dates  from  1830. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  233 

tion; l  it  has  two  classes  of  members:  professional 
scientists  or  fellows,  and  others  who  are  simply  in- 
terested in  science,  or  members.  It  is  specially  inter- 
ested in  serving  as  a  connecting  link  between  many 
societies  that  are  specialized.  It  meets  twice  a  year  at 
different  cities,  once  in  August  and  once  in  the  last 
week  of  December.  The  latter  meeting  is  the  more 
important  in  that  a  very  large  number  of  societies 
meet  during  that  convocation  week  and  the  majority 
of  them  in  the  same  locality  as  the  American  Associa- 
tion itself.  Thus,  in  December,  1915,  eighteen  societies 
met  simultaneously  at  Columbus,  Ohio.  This  is  in- 
deed a  very  fortunate  habit,  and  the  congresses  of  the 
French  Association  would  gain  a  great  deal  if  by  an 
understanding  with  the  special  societies  the  annual 
reunion  of  the  former  could  be  made  to  coincide  with 
the  meetings  of  the  latter. 

Every  year,  the  American  Association  organizes 
symposia  in  its  various  sections,  by  means  of  which 
important  questions  may  be  examined  from  varied 
points  of  view. 

A  European  is  a  little  confused  by  the  multiplicity 
of  the  meetings  which  an  American  scientist  is  invited 
to  attend  every  year,  in  very  distant  parts  of  the  Union. 
The  period  has  passed  when  Congress  hesitated  to  an- 
nex the  territories  of  the  Far  West  because  of  their 
great  distance  and  the  enormous  time  which  would  be 
required  for  a  trip  from  those  regions  to  Congress  at 

1  It  is  divided  into  nine  sections:  A.  Mathematics  and  Astronomy; 
B.  Physics;  C.  Chemistry;  D.  Mechanics  and  Engineering  Sciences;  E. 
Geology  and  Geography;  F.  Zoology;  G.  Botany;  H.  Anthropology;  I. 
Sociology  and  Economic  Science. 


234    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Washington.  But  despite  the  great  facility  of  travel  in 
America  —  the  continent  may  be  crossed  in  four  days 
—  the  formidable  distances  to  be  covered  constitute  a 
great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  scientific  coordination,  and 
now  that  the  region  of  the  Pacific  is  developing  at  a 
fast  rate,  it  has  a  tendency  to  form  its  own  associations 
and  societies. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS 

LESSONS  TO  BE  DRAWN  FOR  FRANCE.    NECESSITY  OF  A 

RENEWAL  OF  THE  AGENCIES  AND  STRUCTURES 

OF  OUR  INTELLECTUAL  LIFE 

"  The  world  has  been  remade 
during  the  last  half  -century" 

Excess  of  "Stateism"  in  our  university  life.  Rector  or  President?  Liberty 
as  the  condition  of  public  support.  Organization  of  student  life.  The  socie- 
ties of  the  friends  of  the  universities;  how  to  vitalize  them.  Excess  of  in- 
dividualism among  the  students,  the  professors,  and  the  instruction.  Pure 
and  applied  science.  L'&cole  Polytechnique,  its  organization  and  present 
condition.  Instruction  and  the  organization  of  research.  Institutes  devoted 
exclusively  to  research.  The  French  universities  must  be  greatly  developed 
after  the  war.  They  should  be  more  varied  and  be  mutually  complementary 
and  not  copy  nor  compete  with  one  another. 

We  must  renew  our  entire  national  structure,  and  not  least,  our  scientific 
organization  the  form  of  which  no  longer  responds  to  the  needs  of  today  and 
above  all  of  tomorrow. 


nnHE  author  desires  to  defend  himself  against  the 
-••  possible  criticism  that  he  wrongly  ascribes  to  his 
readers  a  complete  ignorance  of  university  and  scientific 
life  in  the  United  States  and  that  he  is  under  the  illusion 
of  having  discovered  America  in  this  respect.  He  is  per- 
fectly aware  that  these  matters  are  familiar  to  a  certain 
number  of  Frenchmen  and  that  they  have  been  treated 
in  more  than  one  book.  But  judging  from  what  he  him- 
self knew  or  was  ignorant  of  before  visiting  the  United 
States,  he  thought  it  would  not  be  unprofitable,  and  in 
any  case  would  clarify  matters,  to  give  a  general  ac- 
count of  the  topic  where  the  relation  between  the  vari- 
ous parts  would  be  made  apparent, 


236    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

The  moment  has  now  arrived  for  drawing  conclusions 
from  this  account.  So  far  as  America  itself  is  concerned, 
these  conclusions  have  been  indicated  in  the  course  of 
the  various  chapters,  especially  in  the  chapter  which 
brings  the  first  part  to  an  end,  and  I  content  myself 
with  calling  attention  once  more  to  two  general  fea- 
tures which  emerge  from  the  facts  already  considered; 
first,  the  rapidity  and  amplitude  of  the  recent  growth 
of  American  scientific  life;  it  is  only  now  that  the 
fruits  of  this  movement  will  really  ripen;  and  secondly, 
the  great  enlargement  in  the  notion  of  the  university 
which,  advancing  beyond  our  consecrated  number  of 
five  faculties,  covers  at  present  all  the  branches  of 
modern  society  where  a  profound  intellectual  culture  is 
called  for,  and  spreads  the  methods  of  positive  science 
and  the  idea  of  its  power  everywhere  and  in  generous 
measure. 

I  should  like,  on  the  contrary,  to  call  attention  to  some 
lessons  which  I  think  can  be  drawn  for  the  benefit  of 
France  from  the  facts  already  ascertained.  A  revision 
of  all  the  elements  of  our  national  life  is  absolutely  in- 
dispensable at  the  present  moment,  to  the  end  of  ob- 
taining a  better  yield  from  our  national  organism  after 
the  war.  A  comparative  study  would  supply  a  most 
solid  basis  for  this  purpose.  Not  that  we  should,  purely 
and  simply,  introduce  into  our  country  institutions  from 
the  outside,  whether  American,  or  English,  or  German. 
Even  had  these  latter  been  perfect,  such  a  plan  would 
have  been  none  the  less  impossible.  For  their  excel- 
lence lies  above  all  in  their  relations  with  surrounding 
conditions,  with  traditions  and  customs  of  the  coun- 
tries whence  they  spring.  But  it  might  be  useful  to 
point  out  certain  contrasts  and  to  analyze  them.  Of 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  237 

course  I  can  only  just  touch  on  certain  points  by  way  of 
illustration ;  to  develop  them  would  require  a  whole  book. 

The  first  and  most  significant  of  contrasts  in  the 
field  of  university  life  is  that  between  our  French  Stat- 
isme  and  the  vigor  of  private  American  initiative,  a 
heritage  of  the  English  tradition.  So  far  as  higher 
education  in  France  is  concerned,  hardly  anything 
solid  has  been  done  —  at  least  up  to  a  very  recent  period 
-  outside  the  State.  Private  higher  instruction,  when- 
ever authorized  by  the  law,  has  been  dominated  by 
political  considerations  that  have  vitiated  it  without 
giving  it  any  real  vitality.  However,  quite  recently, 
private  initiative  has  begun  to  produce  some  interest- 
ing institutions,  such  for  example  as  the  "ficole  Libre 
des  Sciences  Politiques."  In  the  field  of  scientific  re- 
search, the  Institut  Pasteur  above  all,  is  a  witness  to 
what  private  initiative  is  capable  of  producing  in 
France  when  accompanied  by  the  benevolent  support  of 
the  public. 

But  freedom  will  not  be  less  fertile  if  granted  more 
generously  to  the  state  institutions  themselves.  Our 
universities  have  been  too  closely  subservient  to  and 
shackled  by  the  meddling  tyranny  of  central  power  in 
the  greater  part  of  their  activities,  even  the  most  in- 
significant. We  are  not  proposing  to  emancipate  them 
completely.  In  the  mechanism  of  our  habits,  the  State 
is  the  only  power  sufficient  to  keep  them  alive.  But 
the  American  example  is  suggestive  in  so  far  as  it  may 
contribute  toward  introducing  a  much  stronger  dose  of 
initiative  and  autonomy  into  French  university  life. 

The  following  seems  to  me  a  very  significant  fact: 
the  way  in  which  a  French  university  is  controlled  or 


238    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

rather  placed  under  close  tutelage.  An  American  uni- 
versity has  a  president  at  its  head  who  is  armed  with 
considerable  and  perhaps  too  autocratic  powers  but 
who  may  and  ought  to  use  all  his  energy  for  the  secur- 
ing of  the  interests  of  the  university,  without  having 
to  take  care  of  other  interests  as  well.  He  is  his  own 
man.  With  us,  the  Rector  who  acts  in  the  name  of  the 
university  and  presides  over  its  Council  does  not  issue 
from  it  at  all.  He  is  a  simple  functionary  who  receives 
his  powers  from  the  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction, 
and  who  must  administer  the  university  on  behalf  of 
the  State  before  he  would  ever  dare  not  only  to  take 
any  initiative  on  behalf  of  the  university  but  even  to 
defend  its  interests,  in  so  far  as  these  might  differ  from 
those  of  the  State.  Neither  can  he  devote  all  his  activity 
to  the  university  for  he  carries  besides  the  very  heavy 
burden  of  secondary  education,  and  to  a  certain  extent, 
of  primary  education  in  his  academy.  That  there 
should  be  a  rector  representing  the  State  in  an  academy 
is  very  natural.  But  every  university  should  have  its 
own  head  who  speaks  its  language  and  works  for  the 
realization  of  its  projects,  discussing  matters  with  the 
rector  on  a  footing  of  equality,  while  the  rector  him- 
self should  be  a  public  minister.  In  Prussia,  a  country 
which  is  not  generally  regarded  as  the  land  of  liberty, 
the  State  is  represented  in  the  university  by  a  curator 
only;  the  rector  is  a  direct  and  sovereign  representa- 
tive of  the  university  itself.  The  same  is  true  of  other 
countries.  Our  rectors  represent  the  survival  of  the 
entire  Napoleonic  regime  and  the  complete  subordina- 
tion of  higher  education  not  even  to  the  central  au- 
thority but  really  to  the  central  administration;  the 
university  is  placed  under  the  power  of  the  bureaucracy. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  239 

The  rector,  unlike  the  president  of  an  American  uni- 
versity, cannot  concentrate  his  mind  upon  the  advance- 
ment of  the  interests  of  the  university;  he  can  only 
see  to  it  that  its  aspirations  are  in  accordance  with  the 
views  which  prevail  in  the  offices  of  the  Rue  de  Grenelle. 
It  is  only  by  the  rarest  exception  that  actually  the  Uni- 
versity of  Paris  has  as  a  rector  the  man  who  has  been 
the  principal  reformer  of  higher  education  in  France 
and  who  incarnates  the  university  itself  for  us.  M. 
Liard  has,  by  his  personal  authority  (even  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  central  administration),  by  his  ability  in 
affairs  and  by  his  devotion,  served  the  University  of 
Paris  as  a  president  after  the  American  fashion.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  we  are  directing  our  criticism  not  to 
any  particular  men  but  to  a  wholly  illogical  system. 
The  only  correct  solution  is  that  each  university  should 
have  at  its  head  a  man  who  issues  from  it  and  entirely 
belongs  to  it.  And  his  independence  and  facility  of 
action  will  measure  the  degree  of  liberty  and  autonomy 
which  the  state  will  have  granted  to  the  universities. 

Such  a  measure  of  liberty  is  an  indispensable  con- 
dition for  the  establishment  of  a  real  contact  and  con- 
fidence between  the  public  and  the  universities  and  for 
the  winning  of  the  effective  support  of  the  former  for 
the  latter.  If  the  private  universities  in  America  have 
been  able  to  live  and  grow  on  a  scale  that  has  been  in- 
dicated, thanks  to  the  inexhaustible  generosity  of  in- 
dividuals, one  of  the  principal  reasons  is  that  these 
latter  are  associated  in  the  governments  of  the  universi- 
ties and  control  them  to  a  certain  extent.  The  state 
universities  themselves,  despite  the  forces  which  have 
brought  them  about,  are  beginning  to  provide  a  scope 


240    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

for  private  action  in  their  direction  l  and  will  enlarge 
it  no  doubt  in  the  future,  because  they  will  not  allow 
themselves  to  be  deprived  of  the  power  represented  by 
the  mass  of  their  alumni. 

The  alumni!  —  there  is  a  genuine  point  of  contact 
with  the  public,  a  point  which  we  have  done  nothing  to 
create.  The  universities,  clothed  in  the  passive  in- 
sensibility of  the  state  with  respect  to  individuals,  are 
quite  indifferent  to  those  whom  they  have  instructed. 
They  have  made  no  effort  to  keep  any  trace  of  them, 
much  less  to  bring  them  back.  Once  the  parchment 
has  been  delivered  by  the  universities,  or  rather  by  the 
state  through  them  into  the  hands  of  the  candidates, 
these  latter  become  strangers,  just  as  they  were  before 
crossing  the  threshold  of  the  university. 

And  similarly  throughout  the  stay  of  the  student  in 
the  university,  where  could  the  least  effort  be  discovered 
for  organizing  his  life,  for  establishing  even  then  a  link 
between  him  and  the  university?  Through  a  complete 
misunderstanding  of  the  psychological  aspect  of  the 
case,  the  authorities  have  suppressed  all  the  ceremonies 
and  reunions  which  might  have  awakened  in  the  stu- 
dent the  idea  of  the  academic  community.  Even  then, 
the  student  is  ignored  by  the  university;  such  culture 
has  with  force  and  justice  been  called  inhuman  culture 
by  Mr.  Barrett  Wendell,  whose  judgment  cannot  be 
suspected  of  malevolence. 

The  example  of  the  American  and  the  English  uni- 
versities should  lead  us  to  innovations  in  this  respect, 
not  to  any  servile  imitation,  but  to  an  adaptation  of 
new  instruments  to  our  habits  so  that  we  might  concern 
ourselves  with  the  material  condition  of  our  students 

1  Consider  for  example  the  biological  station  of  San  Diego  (Chap.  XIV). 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

in  order  to  improve  it  and  to  cease  leaving  them  com- 
pletely to  themselves.  The  foreigners  who  will  attend 
our  institutions  after  the  war,  may,  by  importing  their 
customs  too,  serve  as  a  ferment  and  as  guides  to  our 
students.  It  is  desirable  that  we  encourage  them.  And 
we  should  moreover  help  them  to  find  in  France  an 
equivalent  of  what  they  have  had  at  home,  and  to 
change  the  needs  of  our  own  students.  Private  initia- 
tive must  be  stimulated  and  encouraged  to  this  end, 
for  it  is  the  only  effective  agent.  But  it  must  be  able 
to  rely  upon  the  sympathy  and  support  of  the  university 
itself. 

When  the  universities  were  officially  reconstructed 
twenty  years  ago,  the  need  was  felt  of  bringing  them 
closer  to  the  public.  But  the  attempts  made  have 
suffered  on  the  one  hand  from  the  inertia  of  the  public, 
and  on  the  other  from  the  difficulty  we  feel  in  stripping 
ourselves  of  our  customs  of  governmentalism.  To  this 
the  history  of  the  Societies  of  the  Friends  of  the  Uni- 
versities bears  witness.  The  earliest  was  founded  at 
Lyons,  distinguished  in  France  as  a  city  in  which  private 
initiative  is  particularly  welcomed,  and  the  society  was 
perhaps  the  most  vigorous  of  all.  These  societies 
should  have  taken  rapid  steps  forward;  instead,  almost 
everywhere  the  initial  effort  weakened  instead  of  gain- 
ing strength,  and  today  the  greater  part  of  the  members 
of  these  societies  are  professors,  who  are  by  definition, 
friends  of  the  university,  but  who,  according  to  a  very 
accurate  remark  of  one  of  my  colleagues,  endow  the  as- 
sociations with  an  autophagous  character. 

However,  the  idea  out  of  which  they  were  born  was 
excellent.  The  public  should  have  been  associated  with 
them  to  a  greater  extent,  but  the  societies  failed  to  avail 


242    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

themselves  of  the  factors  best  tending  toward  vitality. 
As  it  appears,  the  former  students  of  the  universities 
were  completely  neglected  in  the  enlistment  of  members 
for  the  societies,  and  yet  were  they  not  preeminently 
suited  as  friends  who  ought  to  be  attracted  and  kept? 
Before  everything,  the  attempt  should  have  been  made 
to  give  to  these  societies  a  real  character  instead  of 
letting  them  exist  as  abstractions.  There  is  yet  time 
to  reform  matters  and  these  associations  should  be 
embodied  in  buildings  which  might  serve  as  hospitable 
homes  for  the  alumni,  stripped  of  the  stern  austerity 
of  the  faculties  themselves  and  helping  every  one  to 
traverse  the  first  stages  of  his  career.  The  associations 
ought  to  bear  some  resemblance  to  the  Harvard  Clubs 
and  similar  clubs.  If  established  on  this  basis,  would 
not  private  initiative  generously  undertake  to  install 
them  and  animate  them  at  the  start?  For  once  the 
inner  and  concrete  life  starts,  they  will  develop  by 
themselves,  through  the  advantages  which  they  would 
offer  to  their  members  and  the  memories  which  they 
would  evoke  in  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  associations  were  not  prop- 
erly connected  with  the  life  of  the  university,  and  here 
governmentalism  is  to  blame,  for  it  is  never  inclined  to 
give  up  the  least  bit  of  its  authority.  As  it  is,  they  have 
no  regular  share  in  the  work  of  the  Councils.1 

1  This  is  a  question  which  concerns  not  only  the  universities  but  the 
whole  fabric  of  public  instruction.  However,  the  idea  is  beginning  to  dawn 
that  the  Superior  Council  of  Instruction  must  include  citizens  representing 
the  principal  social  groups  and  not  only  the  staff  of  instruction  or  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  administration.  We  must  add,  in  extenuation  of  the  form 
of  existing  institutions  that  the  development  of  liberty  was  hampered  by 
the  clerical  problem  and  by  the  necessity  of  defending  the  secular  State 
which  was  attacked  more  in  the  field  of  university  life  than  elsewhere. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  243 

Finally,  so  far  as  their  internal  life  is  concerned,  these 
societies  were  often  too  much  absorbed  by  the  profes- 
sional members  of  the  universities  when  these  should 
have  served  as  discreet  advisers  without  assuming  con- 
trol of  affairs. 

In  a  general  manner,  we  should  consider  without  fear 
the  introduction  of  a  certain  amount  of  outside  control 
in  the  administration  of  the  greater  part  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  universities.  It  is  planned  to  establish 
institutes  of  applied  science  in  the  faculties  of  science 
and  one  of  the  interesting  suggestions  is  to  introduce 
into  the  councils  of  such  institutes  representatives  of 
the  industries  interested  in  their  prosperity. 

The  excess  of  individualism,  not  less  than  govern- 
mentalism,  is  one  of  the  weak  points  of  our  university 
and  scientific  life,  as  it  is  indeed  of  the  entire  French 
community.  This  spirit  of  individualism  is  manifest 
everywhere;  in  the  life  of  the  students  in  the  first  place, 
in  that  it  is  solitary  and  knows  almost  nothing  of  activi- 
ties undertaken  in  common  such  as  those  already 
noticed,  that  fill  the  life  of  the  American  student.  The 
few  existing  associations  are  quite  young  and  have 
scarcely  passed  the  period  of  infancy.  They  cannot  be 
too  warmly  encouraged.  But  the  best  way  to  create  this 
sociability,  that  is  so  desirable,  would  be  to  organize 
student  clubs  (either  for  men  or  for  women)  pleasant 
and  comfortable,  and  also  useful  by  means  of  the  advan- 
tages which  they  would  provide  in  their  character  as 
associations.  The  Americans  are  going  to  set  us  an  ex- 
ample by  organizing  in  Paris,  as  they  are  now  trying  to 
do,  the  American  University  Union.  Our  French  youths 
cannot  help  being  urged  in  the  same  direction  when 


244    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

they  see  with  their  own  eyes  how  their  friends  organize 
their  activities.  In  any  case,  the  spirit  of  solidarity  is 
not  less  strong  in  France  than  elsewhere  among  young 
people,  but  it  must  be  awakened  by  a  common  life. 
Comradeship  in  the  ficole  Normale  and  the  ficole  Poly- 
technique  is  as  much  alive  and  intense  as,  if  not  more 
than,  in  any  foreign  university;  it  results  from  a  life  in 
common  such  as  is  absolutely  lacking  in  the  life  of  an 
average  student  in  Paris  or  in  any  of  our  provincial 
universities. 

Individualism  is  not  less  extreme  among  the  teaching 
body.  In  the  large  cities  particularly,  the  professors 
are  too  isolated  from  one  another.  There  is  no  centre 
where  they  may  meet  and  become  acquainted  in  a 
field  of  activity  outside  their  professional  occupations. 
There  is  nothing  among  us  to  remind  one  of  the 
Faculty  Clubs,  and  Colonial  Clubs,  which  create  such 
an  atmosphere  of  cordial  spirit  in  American  univer- 
sity life. 

Finally,  individualism  prevails  to  excess  in  profes- 
sional life  itself.  The  freedom  which  is  justly  granted 
to  a  professor  in  the  conception  and  carrying  on  of  in- 
struction leads  to  an  excess  such  that  each  one  goes  his 
own  way,  ignorant  of  that  of  his  neighbor.  Coordina- 
tion in  instruction  is  gradually  diminishing.  Each  chair 
is  independent.  The  Faculty  of  Sciences  in  Paris, 
Darboux  used  to  say  when  he  was  its  dean,  is  a  feudal 
body.  The  various  professors  live  in  their  laboratories, 
somewhat  as  the  barons  of  the  Middle  Ages  used  to  live 
in  their  chateaus,  without  concerning  themselves  with 
one  another  and  without  joining  their  efforts  together 
sufficiently  with  the  intent  of  achieving  a  common 
result. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  245 

Scientific  research  proper  accommodates  itself  to  such 
habits,  because  in  principle  it  is  essentially  individualis- 
tic. Still,  it  suffers  a  great  deal  in  that  it  requires  more 
and  more  an  expensive  and  multiple  apparatus  which 
would  be  secured  much  more  easily  and  completely 
by  an  association  of  efforts  that  would  avoid  any  useless 
duplication  of  function.  America  has  sometimes  the 
reputation  in  Europe  of  being  a  country  of  prodigality 
and  waste.  It  is  sufficient  to  have  seen  the  American 
university  libraries  —  the  general  library  of  the  univer- 
sity and  the  laboratory  libraries  —  in  order  to  perceive 
that  there  is  infinitely  more  order  and  economy,  and  in 
consequence,  an  infinitely  greater  amount  of  utilizable 
resources  in  America  than  here.  Without  diminishing 
in  any  respect  the  liberty  of  each  professor  in  his  re- 
search work,  it  is  imperative  that  the  life  of  the  vari- 
ous laboratories  be  better  coordinated. 

But  this  is  truer  still  of  the  teaching,  and  above  all  of 
that  teaching  which  is  fundamental.  Without  that  con- 
dition, a  genuine  instruction  of  students  is  impossible. 
Teaching  must  concern  itself  with  the  average  person 
who  needs  to  be  directed  methodically.  Exceptional 
individuals  are  more  or  less  able  to  dispense  with  guides, 
but  after  all  they  are  a  very  small  minority.  And  yet 
our  system  of  superior  instruction  seems  to  have  been 
made  for  these  only.  For  such  individuals  are  provided 
more  liberally  than  elsewhere  with  higher  and  even  un- 
surpassed courses,  yet  the  very  foundation  on  which 
this  superior  level  should  be  established  is  far  from  being 
properly  laid. 

From  the  social  point  of  view,  power  is  obtained 
chiefly  by  the  organization  which  strives  to  obtain 
plentiful  returns  of  average  value.  Superior  people  es- 


246    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

cape  all  systems  and  triumph  over  difficulties  and  de- 
ficiencies; average  people  come  to  nothing  if  they  are 
not  systematically  helped  to  reach  a  level  where  they 
may  render  important  service  to  the  community.  The 
power  of  Germany  for  example,  is  due  above  all  to  a 
useful  development  and  judicious  utilization  of  individ- 
uals of  average  capacity. 

We  arrive  at  similar  conclusions  with  respect  to  an- 
other field  where  the  American  example  is  equally 
striking;  I  have  reference  to  the  place  of  the  applied 
sciences  in  the  universities  and  chiefly  of  the  engineering 
and  agricultural  sciences.  Their  importance  is  continu- 
ally increasing,  and  not  only  do  American  universities 
assure  the  primary  preparation  of  technicians  in  these 
fields  but  further  they  become  centres  of  research 
through  their  laboratories  and  the  special  institutes 
which  are  attached  to  them;  the  Mellon  Institute  is 
particularly  interesting  in  this  respect. 

In  France,  on  the  contrary,  the  universities  have  been 
conceived  uniquely  as  instruments  of  pure  science,  and 
it  is  only  very  recently  that  they  have  turned  more  or 
less  timidly  toward  the  applied  sciences,  and  moreover 
with  quite  insufficient  resources.  When  the  Revolution 
reorganized  education,  it  isolated  applied  science  within 
special  schools  access  to  which  soon  became  very  diffi- 
cult owing  to  the  introduction  of  competitive  exami- 
nations. One  of  the  consequences  of  this  has  been  a 
profound  anaemia  in  the  faculties  of  science,  from  which 
almost  the  entire  youth  turned  away;  in  fact,  all  the 
practical  careers  to  which  the  study  of  science  might 
lead  were  recruited  outside  the  faculties.  At  least  the 
preliminary  theoretical  instruction  which  is  necessary 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  247 

for  these  professions  should  have  been  left  to  the  Facul- 
ties of  Science,  even  if  we  grant  that  the  purely  technical 
preparation  might  have  been  left  in  the  hands  of  special 
schools.  And  yet,  whenever  instruction  of  this  sort  was 
required,  it  was  organized  specially  outside  the  Faculties 
of  Science.  And  now  we  face  the  paradox  that  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique  in  contradiction  with  its  name  and 
the  purpose  of  its  foundation  has  become  a  sort  of  a 
faculty  of  pure  sciences,  in  which  application  properly 
speaking  plays  a  very  limited  part. 

The  ficole  Polytechnique  is  an  institution  without  its 
like  in  other  countries,  one  that  has  for  a  long  time  al- 
most monopolized  French  science  in  a  most  brilliant 
fashion  and  which  even  today  makes  grave  encroach- 
ments upon  the  scientific  recruitment  of  our  universi- 
ties. The  competitive  examination  which  guards  its 
gates  exercises  a  powerful  attraction  upon  youth  and  it 
is  one  of  the  essential  factors  in  the  great  growth  of  our 
mathematical  instruction.  It  results  in  a  very  severe 
selection,  bringing  to  the  school  a  student  body  of  ex- 
cellent quality.  In  fact,  the  strength  of  the  school  lies 
more  in  the  quality  of  its  students  than  in  the 
curriculum. 

The  latter,  as  perpetuated  by  tradition  is  much  to  be 
criticized  from  the  points  of  view  both  of  pure  science 
and  of  its  applications.  The  courses  are  exclusively 
theoretical  and  chiefly  mnemonic;  one  is  even  tempted 
to  call  them  psittacizing  when  one  recalls  the  system  of 
repeated  questions  on  which  the  students  are  solely 
judged.  Success  comes  to  the  one  who  repeats  most 
faithfully  on  the  blackboard  the  literal  content  of 
courses  hastily  digested;  it  depends  on  the  speed  of  the 
assimilation  and  on  the  physical  resistance  to  a  regime 


248    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

which  leaves  almost  no  part  to  reflection  or  to  original- 
ity of  mind  and  involves  nothing  of  contact  with  reality 
or  experience.  The  system,  if  well  applied,  would  suit 
mathematics  at  most;  but  it  is  absurd  to  apply  it  to 
such  sciences  as  chemistry,  and  to  cast  them  in  the  same 
mould  as  analysis  or  rational  mechanics,  without 
bringing  laboratory  work  to  bear. 

How  could  an  intellectual  culture  of  this  sort  prepare 
men,  who  are  even  well-endowed  such  as  those  generally 
furnished  to  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  by  the  competitive 
examination,  to  analyze  reality?  Their  minds  have 
formed  the  habit  of  neglecting  the  observation  of  things 
and  of  reducing  the  most  complex  of  questions  to  a 
small  set  of  mathematical  syllogisms.  Of  course,  the 
education  of  an  engineer  should  embrace  a  considerable 
portion  of  mathematics  as  an  indispensable  instrument, 
but  above  all  it  must  orient  itself  toward  experimental 
reality.1 

Moreover,  though  a  solid  scientific  instruction  be  use- 
ful as  an  introduction  to  very  different  applications,  we 
have  however  the  paradox  that  it  is  a  grading  obtained 
by  a  total  adding  of  examination  points  which  decides 
the  career  that  the  graduating  student  will  choose  from 
among  the  varied  and  heterogeneous  group  introduced 
to  him  by  the  school,  whereas  the  special  aptitude  of 
the  student  does  not  influence  the  selection.  It  would 
be  quite  reasonable,  for  example,  that  engineers  special- 
izing in  explosives  should  be  recruited  preferably  on 

1  From  this  point  of  view,  mathematical  instruction  as  given  in  OUT  ad- 
vanced schools  of  engineering  and  principally  in  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  is 
on  the  whole  too  advanced  and  too  theoretical.  There  is  a  confusion  be- 
tween that  which  is  necessary  to  the  masses  and  that  which  interests  but 
a  small  intellectual  aristocracy. 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  249 

the  basis  of  their  ability  in  chemistry.1  This  extreme 
presumed  generality  of  interests  is  in  conformity  more 
with  conditions  as  they  existed  when  the  tlcole  was 
founded  in  1795  than  with  those  today;  and  it  is  op- 
posed to  the  spirit  of  specialization  dominant  in  in- 
creasing measure  in  the  foreign  schools. 

Finally,  we  should  not  forget  that  the  annual  selec- 
tion of  two  hundred  students  for  the  Ecole  by  competi- 
tive examination,  though  it  may  bring  good  material 
together,  would  immobilize  for  a  period  of  two  and  often 
three  years  —  the  best  years  of  youth  in  every  respect 
-  more  than  a  thousand  young  men  in  tasks  consisting 
of  artificial  exercises.  So  that  however  well  the  school 
might  employ  those  who  enroll  in  it,  it  has  this  to  be  said 
against  it,  namely,  that  to  achieve  this  result,  it  risks 
the  sterilization  of  two  or  three  times  as  many  individ- 
uals of  whom  many  were  about  as  able  as  those  that 
have  been  received.  How  much  better  is  the  system  of 
free  admission  into  the  universities,  where  abilities  are 
manifested  and  classified,  where  tastes  and  aptitudes 
are  formed  and  directed  naturally  to  the  appropriate 
special  studies  and  where  there  is  no  pretension  of 
stamping  the  twenty  year  old  student  in  a  final  way 
and  for  all  his  life  with  the  seal  of  this  or  that  career. 

The  old  ideas  which  separated  the  pure  from  the  ap- 
plied sciences  and  regarded  only  the  former  as  worthy 
objects  of  study  has  the  disadvantage  not  only  of  keep- 

1  Not  many  years  ago,  a  considerable  number  of  students  used  to  drop 
out  as  the  school  finished  and  to  utilize  the  knowledge  they  had  acquired  in 
following  studies  of  their  choice.  This  fact  constitutes  a  serious  argument  in 
favor  of  the  transformation  of  the  £cole  into  an  institution  which  would 
open  its  doors  much  more  broadly,  and  which  there  would  be  no  reason  to 
separate,  as  is  being  done  today,  from  the  universities. 


250    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ing  the  mass  of  youth  away  from  the  universities,  but 
of  injuring  science  as  such,  in  both  its  aspects,  as  pure 
and  as  applied.  The  first  must  come  in  contact  with 
the  second  in  order  that  it  may  make  progress  and  if 
kept  at  too  great  a  distance  from  the  latter,  it  runs  the 
danger  of  becoming  a  mandarinate.  Moreover,  pure 
science  can  suit  a  very  limited  number  of  minds,  and 
the  only  practical  method  of  discovering  these  minds 
is  a  system  of  free  selection  from  among  many  individ- 
uals. In  a  milieu  which  is  necessarily  limited  like  that 
of  a  school  of  pure  science,  the  conditions  for  such  a 
selection  do  not  exist.  Great  men  are  not  made  by 
education;  the  problem  is  only  how  to  discover  them  in 
the  large  mass,  how  not  to  choke  them,  and  how  to 
secure  for  them  a  free  development  through  the  surest 
methods. 

The  most  reasonable  conception  of  a  university,  so 
far  as  science  is  concerned,  is  to  secure  a  broad  basis 
for  the  university  by  means  of  relatively  elementary 
courses  leading  to  varied  and  practical  careers,  and 
attracting  the  student  public  in  a  way  which  would 
permit  a  selection;  then,  at  a  higher  level,  the  university 
should  place  advanced  courses  at  the  disposal  of  those 
who  have  been  selected  and  chiefly  an  organization 
rendering  research  possible  under  favorable  conditions. 
Above  a  certain  level,  instruction  through  courses  ex 
cathedra  is  more  or  less  futile.  It  is  only  the  working  in 
direct  contact  with  reality  that  is  fruitful.  In  this 
respect  we  are  apt  to  consider  advanced  instruction  in 
too  absolute  a  fashion,  as  a  process  involving  neces- 
sarily a  professor.  When  the  work  of  a  scientist  has 
received  public  recognition,  if  the  public  authorities 
decide  to  make  a  contribution  in  order  to  aid  the  scien- 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

list  to  go  on  with  research  and  to  stimulate  others  to  the 
work  of  scientific  investigation,  they  establish  a  new 
chair  at  the  Sorbonne  with  its  paraphernalia  of  oral 
courses  and,  invariably,  examinations  and  diplomas. 
But  almost  the  last  thing  they  think  of  organizing  is  a 
laboratory,  and  never  sufficiently,  although  a  labora- 
tory would  have  been  the  most  necessary  and  urgent  of 
things  under  the  circumstances.  We  have  a  patent  ex- 
ample in  Pierre  Curie,  for  whom,  after  his  discovery  of 
radium,  a  chair  was  established  in  the  Sorbonne.  But 
he  died  —  prematurely  it  is  true  —  without  having  the 
laboratory  that  was  to  him  of  all  things  the  most 
indispensable. 

In  propounding  this  view  before  a  Committee  of  the 
Senate  some  years  ago,  I  had  the  opportunity  to  see 
that  certain  among  those  Members  of  Parliament  that 
are  interested  in  the  questions  of  higher  education  are 
still  far  from  understanding  the  distinction  that  I  have 
just  made.  And  yet,  what  I  am  suggesting  is  not  some- 
thing new;  in  all  the  large  countries,  the  organization 
of  scientific  progress  takes  the  form  of  the  establish- 
ment of  institutes  devoted  exclusively  to  research. 
France  had  shown  the  way  a  long  time  ago.  The 
College  de  France  and  the  Museum  answer  these  con- 
ditions; however,  oral  instruction  in  them  has  been 
given  too  rigid  a  position,  at  least  so  far  as  the  experi- 
mental sciences  are  concerned,  and  the  laboratories 
have  often  been  left  in  a  lamentable  condition.  The 
Inslitut  Pasteur  is  the  model  for  all  the  great  institu- 
tions of  research  that  must  be  established  when  a  new 
branch  of  science  is  being  developed  in  the  hands  of  a 
man  of  superior  capacity.  And  there  is  no  reason  why  they 
should  be  completely  separated  from  the  universities. 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

While  we  lingered  among  the  old  pedagogical  formu- 
lae, in  respect  of  the  organization  of  scientific  research, 
Germany  was  busy  establishing  on  an  ample  scale  in 
the  years  before  the  war  the  Institutes  of  the  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  Gesellschaft.  And  America  witnessed  the  birth 
of  the  Carnegie  and  Rockefeller  Institutes,  and  within 
the  universities,  the  establishment  of  research  labora- 
tories such  as  the  Wolcott  Gibbs  Laboratory  of  Har- 
vard and  a  certain  number  of  others  which  are  proof 
that  the  value  of  the  principle  in  question  had  been 
fully  recognized. 

Napoleon  I  had  decided  that  the  Faculty  of  Sciences 
of  Paris,  which  in  his  eyes  was  chiefly  a  permanent  com- 
mittee of  examinations,  should  have  eight  professors. 
Moreover,  these  professors  were  not  to  be  in  its  own 
right;  two  were  from  the  Ecole  Poly  technique,  two  from 
the  College  de  France,  two  from  the  Museum  and  two 
from  the  Colleges.  The  Faculty  of  Letters  had  an 
analogous  composition.  For  a  long  time,  the  number 
of  chairs  remained  stationary,  as  is  testified  by  the 
announcements  of  courses  dating  from  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  which  have  been  made  public 
in  various  expositions.  But  today  things  have  im- 
proved; the  chairs  and  the  courses  have  been  multi- 
plied to  a  degree  that  has  sometimes  seemed  scandalous 
to  people  occupying  considerable  administrative  posts, 
as  I  have  been  able  to  observe.  And  yet  our  universities, 
especially  those  in  the  provinces,  still  remain  of  quite 
modest  proportions  when  compared  with  foreign  uni- 
versities where  it  is  not  rare  to  find  two  or  three  hun- 
dred professors  ancftfs  many,  if  not  more,  assistants  who 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  253 

complete  the  teaching  and  make  it  accessible  to  the 
students  in  every  branch  of  thought. 

Our  contemporaries  have  known  the  old  Sorbonne; 
my  generation,  which  is  yet  relatively  young,  has  con- 
ducted its  studies  in  the  laboratories  installed  in  the 
old  dilapidated  buildings  which  bordered  the  Rue  St. 
Jacques.  The  new  Sorbonne  which  is  scarcely  more  than 
twenty  years  of  age  is  a  palace  and  looks  like  a  whole 
world  in  comparison  with  the  old  buildings.  But  when 
we  compare  her  with  the  size  and  the  installations  of 
the  American  universities,  considered  in  this  book,  or 
with  the  large  German  universities,  she  seems  rather 
small  and  —  above  all  —  choked  and  incapable  of  ex- 
tension. What  shall  we  say  then  of  our  provincial  uni- 
versities of  which  some  at  least  should  be  able  to  bear 
comparison  with  the  best  foreign  universities,  and  for 
the  sake  of  the  country's  spiritual  health,  should  equal 
that  of  Paris  and  counterbalance  its  influence!  The 
Republic  had  done  enormous  good  to  higher  education; 
in  fact,  it  has  practically  created  it.  But  no  one  should 
be  deceived  into  thinking  that  it  had  a  very  great  vision. 
The  least  trip  outside  France,  the  pilgrimage  to  Stras- 
bourg that  we  all  hope  soon  to  undertake  would  suffice 
to  undeceive  us. 

The  present  war  has  once  more  brought  these  prob- 
lems to  the  foreground.  The  practical  value  of  science 
has  been  confirmed  more  forcefully  than  ever  as  a 
source  of  power  and  wealth.  Germany  has  drawn  her 
aggressive  audacity  and  above  all  her  force  of  resistance 
less  perhaps  from  the  sickly  exaltation  of  militarism 
than  from  the  confidence  in  the  resources  which  her 
scientific  development  assured  to  her.  Where  would 


254    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

she  have  been  today  if  only  her  chemists  had  not  real- 
ized the  synthesis  of  nitrates  in  industry,  indispensable 
as  it  is  in  the  manufacture  of  explosives?  And  the  fact 
that  this  was  possible  is  due  primarily  to  the  prosperity 
of  her  universities. 

These  considerations  are  not  relevant  to  us  only. 
Certainly,  England  has  taken  them  into  account  and  is 
preparing,  in  its  turn,  to  make  up  for  lost  time.  Its 
universities,  its  laboratories,  its  technical  schools  based 
on  modern  ideas  and  above  everything  on  the  fertility 
of  the  experimental  method,  will  make  a  considerable 
advance.  Italy,  now  actively  renascent,  is  no  longer 
blind  to  these  signs.  If  then  our  universities,  instead 
of  being  revived,  equipped  with  the  necessary  tools,  and 
supported  financially  as  they  deserve,  be  left  to  remain 
on  the  morrow  of  the  peace  as  they  are  today,  before 
long  we  shall  lag  far  behind  those  nations  which  aspire 
not  to  dominate  the  world  but  to  live  an  independent 
life  without  being  the  satellites  of  those  countries  that 
will  produce  and  inevitably  regulate  the  condition  of 
the  others. 

We  should  then  think  of  developing  our  universities 
to  quite  vast  proportions.  What  is  aimed  at  is  neither 
a  luxury  nor  a  chimera  but  a  vital  necessity.  Yet,  given 
the  needs  and  the  resources  of  the  country,  it  is  out  of 
the  question  to  attempt  to  establish  fifteen  gigantic  and 
complete  institutions.  The  effort  must  be  concentrated 
on  a  smaller  number.  When  the  question  of  restoring 
the  French  universities  was  under  consideration  thirty 
years  ago,  the  plan  was  to  organize  eight  or  nine  large 
institutions  only,  in  which  it  would  have  been  possible 
to  concentrate  the  existing  resources.  But  owing  to 
local  interests  which  find  such  a  strong  support  in  the 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  255 

parliamentary  regime,  the  plan  failed,  with  the  result 
that  all  the  old  groupings  of  faculties  were  transformed 
into  universities  and  thus  the  effort  was  scattered. 
Doubtless,  none  of  these  universities  is  useless.  They 
serve  as  centres  of  culture  in  the  cities  of  the  provinces 
which  indeed  need  to  be  stimulated  and  stirred  from 
the  torpor  into  which  excessive  centralization  in  France 
has  plunged  them.  But  since  the  number  of  univer- 
sities is  rather  too  large,  and  the  distances  separating 
them  often  small,  they  should  aim  at  supplementing 
one  another,  if  they  are  to  live  in  a  genuine  fashion  in- 
stead of  competing  against  and  imitating  one  another, 
to  the  loss  of  all.  If  for  example,  Grenoble  owing  to  its 
geographical  position  lends  itself  particularly  to  the 
development  of  such  branches  of  study  as  electro- 
technics,  it  would  be  absurd  if  all  the  fifteen  universi- 
ties, following  the  example  of  Grenoble,  tried  to  have 
institutes  of  electro-technics  when  four  or  five  would  be 
sufficient.  Clermont-Ferrand  can  serve  very  well  as  a 
centre  for  the  geological  study  of  volcanic  phenomena 
in  connection  with  related  facts  such  as  the  properties 
of  mineral  waters.  Puy-de-D6me  is  the  seat  of  a  meteor- 
ological observatory  which  has  been  set  working  in  an 
interesting  direction  by  its  founder,  but  chiefly  by  my 
regretted  friend,  Bernard  Brunhes.  We  have  there  the 
conditions  for  a  great  development  of  the  study  of 
meteorology  which  it  would  be  futile  to  attempt  to 
emulate  elsewhere.  Every  region  of  France  ought  to 
stimulate  the  growth  of  some  particular  branches  of 
science,  for  the  purposes  of  which  a  university  would 
serve  as  a  metropolis  attracting  masters  and  students 
from  afar.  The  universities  have  a  definite  r61e  to  play 
in  the  necessary  awakening  of  the  spirit  of  regionalism 


256    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

but  on  condition  that  they  fit  into  the  region  and  do  not 
ignore  the  neighboring  regions.  The  six  hundred  Ameri- 
can colleges  and  universities  are  not  and  will  never  be 
institutions  of  equivalent  significance;  the  universities, 
which  today  are  in  the  foreground,  will  even  tend  to 
diminish  in  number  and  to  become  more  diversified. 
Similarly,  the  destiny  of  the  various  French  universi- 
ties, if  the  circumstances  are  favorable,  would  seem  to 
be  to  secure  in  every  one  the  possibility  of  good  funda- 
mental studies,  for  which  great  equipment  is  not  re- 
quired. My  own  experience  with  my  students  who 
have  come  from  different  centres  has  taught  me  that 
often  natural  history  is  usually  studied  better  in  a 
modest  faculty,  like  that  of  Besangon  or  Grenoble, 
than  in  Paris.  The  best  condition  is  the  presence  of 
some  good  teachers,  surrounded  by  a  few  students,  and 
animated  by  the  sacred  fire.  But  for  the  purposes  of 
specialization,  a  perfect  and  rich  apparatus  is  neces- 
sary; there  as  elsewhere,  division  of  labor  and  coordi- 
nation are  imperative,  and  the  spirit  of  imitation  and 
sterile  competition  should  be  avoided. 

For  anyone  who  returns  from  America  to  France,  an 
impression  which  is  not  very  pleasant  but  is  very  per- 
sistent accompanies  the  perception  —  reenf orced  by 
comparative  observation  —  of  the  fineness  and  the  pro- 
found virtues  of  our  ancient  race;  it  is  the  impression 
that  our  national  fabric,  intellectual  as  well  as  economic, 
is  scanty  and  oldish.  Our  institutions  were  brilliant  and 
fruitful  a  century  ago;  they  were  then  ahead  of  their 
time.  But  we  have  remained  content  with  our  past 
glory  without  adapting  ourselves  sufficiently  to  the 
new  conditions.  The  world  has  been  remade  during  the 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  257 

last  half-century  and  yet,  in  many  respects,  we  are  still 
cast  in  a  mould  which  was  fitting  enough  to  the  period 
of  Louis-Philippe.  It  is  better  to  admit  this  frankly 
and  to  analyze  its  causes  than  to  delight  in  the  illu- 
sions of  a  bourrage  de  cranes  —  to  use  an  expression  of 
the  day  —  duping  only  ourselves.1 

This  is  true  generally  and  not  by  reference  to  any 
particular  aspect  of  social  life;  and  it  originates  from 
very  profound  causes.  Without  taking  sides  in  a  politi- 
cal dispute,  I  should  say  that  it  is  the  result  of  bourgeois 
mentality.  The  French  bourgeoisie  which  has  been  in 
control  for  a  century  has  encrusted  itself  in  some  way 
with  genuine  virtues  that  unfortunately  are  of  second- 
ary value  and  kill  vitality.  A  biologist  would  be  tempted 
to  compare  this  condition  to  an  encystment  or  to  a 
similar  form  of  lethargic  life  or  even  to  the  life  of  the 
organisms  trained  to  live  in  aquaria  by  means  of  a 
reduced  diet  and  diminished  nutritive  reactions,  which 
however  lack  the  liveliness  and  the  fertility  of  their 
free  fellow-creatures. 

Its  ideal  has  been  to  preserve  the  wealth  already  ac- 
quired, working  to  this  end  for  the  greatest  possible 
security,  turning  away  from  adventure  and  the  life  of 
enterprise  with  its  possibilities  of  loss  but  also  with  its 

1  After  writing  the  above,  I  met  a  former  student  of  mine  who  is  a  for- 
eigner, ripened  by  hard  experience  and  long  personal  work,  and  who  after 
having  obtained  all  his  scientific  education  in  France  (to  which,  by  the  way, 
he  remains  extremely  attached)  settled  in  England,  two  years  ago.  Quite 
spontaneously,  he  made  many  remarks  to  me,  which  were  the  fruit  of  his 
observations  and  which  I  had  already  been  led  to  record  here,  and  he  asked 
me  with  sincere  anxiety  if  France  after  the  war  would  be  sufficiently  aware 
of  the  need  to  modernize  all  her  life  —  a  need  which  is  so  apparent  to  any- 
one who  has  lived  in  foreign  countries  recently.  The  conversation  was  for 
me  a  confirmation  of  the  observations  which  I  have  brought  forward  here 
and  a  proof  that  they  are  in  no  way  exaggerated. 


258    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

chances  of  success.  It  even  scorns  the  occasions  which 
are  offered,  as  the  recent  history  of  our  colonial  rule 
proves.  Instead  of  putting  its  savings  into  investment 
for  the  purpose  of  augmenting  the  wealth  and  the 
strength  of  France,  it  permits  its  banks  to  serve  as 
sleeping  partners  in  foreign  enterprises  and  to  arm 
other  peoples  who  are  thus  enabled  to  procure  weapons 
with  which  to  attack  us. 

Likewise,  it  has  voluntarily  relinquished  the  task  of 
propagating  the  race  in  order  to  save  itself  from  the 
trouble  of  producing  new  wealth,  thus  committing  col- 
lective suicide.  The  people  imitate  and  by  indulging  in 
the  taste  for  comfort,  expose  the  country  to  the  most 
terrible  danger  of  the  hour. 

As  a  consequence,  the  bourgeoisie  has  been  too  in- 
different to  whatever  contributes  to  the  renewing  of 
the  environment  and  everybody  has  been  trying  above 
all  to  maintain  the  state  of  things  already  realized  with- 
out noticing  that  the  latter,  like  a  position  turned  by 
the  enemy,  falls  to  pieces  by  the  mere  changing  of  the 
external  situation.  The  French  bourgeoisie  as  a  whole 
has  been  unaware  of  this  fact,  for  it  scarcely  traveled 
at  all.  It  thus  saved  the  expense  of  the  trip.  I  have 
more  than  once  had  this  feeling  expressed  to  me  in 
conversation  with  people  in  the  cities  of  the  North, 
rich  or  poor.  "What  have  you  gained,"  they  used  to 
ask  me,  "by  making  such  a  long  and  expensive  trip 
just  to  be  present  at  a  congress?" 

The  same  state  of  mind  is  responsible  for  the  fact  that 
the  French  public  remains  deaf  to  all  appeals  inviting 
it  to  take  the  initiative  in  tasks  of  public  interest;  it 
lacks  the  private  initiative  which  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
countries  is  ever  awake,  ever  sure  of  the  generous  aid 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  259 

of  the  richer  classes  and  is  the  source  of  the  fundamental 
idealism  of  these  peoples,  despite  the  utilitarian  picture 
which  we  paint  of  them.  The  French  bourgeois  prefers 
to  let  the  State  do  whatever  is  necessary,  while  at  the 
same  time  insisting  on  paying  the  smallest  taxes  possi- 
ble and  is  little  concerned  about  using  the  resources 
placed  by  the  State  at  his  disposal. 

He  is  far  from  lacking  culture;  but,  during  the  whole 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  his  culture  has  been  too  ex- 
clusively literary,  abstract  and  formal.  It  has  given 
rise  to  a  genuine  finesse,  an  incontestable  elegance  of 
mind  and  has  safeguarded  the  qualities  of  high-minded 
sentiments,  bravery  in  danger  and  the  broad  feeling  of 
human  solidarity  which  reappear  with  all  their  force  at 
the  moment  of  a  great  crisis;  the  present  war  has 
furnished  a  magnificent  proof  of  this.  Yet  a  culture  of 
this  sort  is  not  adequate  to  the  conditions  of  modern 
life;  notice  also  the  fact  that  literature,  in  seeking  to 
renew  itself  indefinitely,  after  having  more  or  less  ex- 
hausted the  analysis  of  human  nature,  now  begins  to 
turn  to  the  field  of  the  more  and  more  exceptional,  thus 
gradually  slipping  into  pathology.  The  limits  of  art  are 
becoming  indefinite,  and  literature  (even  when  dis- 
sociated from  the  interloping  productions  wrongly 
attributed  to  us  and  of  which  we  were  ignorant  be- 
cause these  works  were  the  product  of  foreign  factories) 
has  a  rather  unhealthy  tone  which  shocks  the  stranger. 
We  should  not  be  surprised  at  this.  The  success  we 
have  obtained  by  this  form  of  literature  suggests  the 
thought  that  it  depicts  our  ordinary  life,  when  really  it 
is  remote  from  the  prosaic  wisdom  of  the  French  masses. 

But  above  all,  the  French  public  has  been  led  away 
from  interest  in  scientific  culture  by  an  excess  of  litera- 


260    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ture.  It  has  been  indifferent  to  science;  it  has  had  no 
faith  in  its  power.  In  alleviation  we  should  say  that 
the  Catholic  Church  —  of  which  we  must  never  over- 
look the  educative  influence  —  has  been  indefatigable 
in  its  efforts  to  cast  suspicion  on  science;  and  even  to- 
day, it  is  not  averse  to  hearing  its  failure  proclaimed. 
In  the  meantime,  others  at  our  side  have  been  preach- 
ing to  a  whole  nation  as  a  fundamental  axiom  —  and 
chiefly  by  the  channel  of  the  universities  —  the  princi- 
ple of  the  sovereign  importance  of  Science  as  a  factor  of 
wealth  and  power.  In  fact,  the  importance  and  practi- 
cal bearing  of  Science  are  far  from  being  limited  to  the 
immediate  consequences  of  the  discoveries.  Funda- 
mentally, the  scientific  spirit  controls  the  whole  ma- 
terial aspect  of  social  life  to  an  increasing  extent.  As 
M.  E.  Picard  —  a  mathematician  devoted  to  very 
speculative  researches,  extremely  remote  from  com- 
mon reality  —  has  very  judiciously  observed,  the  sci- 
entific spirit  is  in  no  way  a  particular  entity  by  itself, 
but  very  simply  a  continuation  of  good  sense.  When 
applied  to  practical  life,  it  is  only  the  reasoned  and  ab- 
solute faith  in  the  logical  connection  of  facts  and  the 
rational  prediction  of  effects  from  their  causes.  It  is 
thus  the  antithesis  of  the  ancient  religious  belief  in 
miracles  —  and  in  the  capacity  of  a  supernatural  in- 
tervention to  modify  things  as  we  desire.  Not  less  is  it 
opposed  to  that  attitude,  derived  in  the  main  from  the 
preceding  one,  according  to  which  it  is  in  no  way  neces- 
sary to  concern  oneself  with  remote  previsions.  One 
aims  always  to  settle  things  when  confronted  by  events; 
one  counts  on  chance  and  finds  one's  way  out;  this  is 
system  D  in  the  language  of  the  trooper.  This  system 
may  not  be  devoid  of  elegance;  it  may  enable  one  to 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 

emerge  from  difficult  situations,  ingeniously  and  some- 
times heroically  but  it  is  never  useful  for  the  purpose  of 
building  the  structure  of  the  future.  We  have  an  un- 
fortunate national  inclination  toward  it.  We  must 
react  vigorously  against  it  to  the  advantage  of  the  scien- 
tific spirit  which  foresees  and  organizes  and  from  which 
our  adversaries  of  the  moment  draw  their  greatest 
power.  The  scientific  spirit,  thus  understood,  enters 
into  the  daily  practices  of  the  material  life  of  a  people 
in  proportion  as  its  methods  of  production,  in  all  fields, 
are  sane  and  fertile.  There  can  be  no  assurance  of  social 
prosperity  in  modern  life  where  this  principle  is  not  ap- 
preciated; and  in  the  competition  among  the  peoples, 
the  decisive  factor  is  perhaps  the  degree  in  which  it  has 
penetrated  the  mind  of  the  public  and  has  entered  the 
domain  of  the  unconscious.  Scientific  culture  and  above 
all  the  scientific  spirit  which  comes  from  it  and  which 
remains  identical  at  its  various  levels  are  thus  factors 
of  capital  importance  in  the  formation  of  the  social 
outlook. 

Political  centralization  —  cultivated  even  today  by 
the  parties  in  power,  as  an  instrument  of  control  with 
almost  as  much  relish  as  by  Napoleon  I  —  has  been 
added  today  to  the  preceding  causes  in  paralyzing  the 
life  of  the  provinces.  Our  average  provincial  cities  - 
and  even  our  large  cities  —  make  a  painful  impression 
on  anyone  coming  from  English  or  Swiss  towns  or  from 
elsewhere.  All  this  must  be  modernized. 

The  growth  of  our  intellectual  institutions  must 
necessarily  be  bound  up  with  the  average  intellectual 
development  of  our  ruling  classes.  Control  of  the  latter 
is  an  indispensable  factor.  People  who,  at  a  given  mo- 
ment, feel  the  need  of  progress  and  endeavor  to  bring 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

it  to  pass,  are  helpless  if  not  supported  by  public 
opinion.  Under  Napoleon  III,  Pasteur,  Claude  Bern- 
ard, Wurtz,  Sainte-Claire  Deville,  and  others  sounded 
the  alarm  in  the  clearest  way,  but  their  appeals  fell  on 
deaf  ears.  Nowadays,  in  spite  of  the  very  important 
progress  accomplished  under  the  Third  Republic,  our 
academic  institutions  have  still  something  antiquated 
about  them  which  reflects  the  state  of  mind  of  the  pub- 
lic, and  for  which  the  latter  is  to  a  great  extent  re- 
sponsible. 

Despite  their  new  name,  our  universities  have  not 
yet  stripped  themselves  of  the  spirit,  the  structure,  and 
the  chains  of  the  Napoleonic  faculties.  The  College  de 
France  has  neither  the  laboratories  nor  the  resources 
which  it  deserves.  The  Museum  of  Natural  History,  in 
spite  of  its  souvenirs  of  Lamarck,  Cuvier  and  Geoffrey 
Saint-Hilaire,  periodically  invoked,  is  not  the  Museum 
with  which  Paris  ought  to  put  in  comparison  with  the 
British  Museum,  the  American  Museum,  and  other 
large  foreign  Museums.  The  wealth  of  the  past  is  not 
sufficient  to  assure  to  it  the  rank  which  it  ought  to  hold. 
Its  library,  which  is  so  rich  and  precious  because  of  its 
age,  is  not  as  well  furnished  as  it  should  be,  and  the 
inadequacy  of  its  means  is  not  reassuring  as  to  the 
safety  of  the  riches  which  it  does  contain.  The  ficole 
Poll/technique  despite  the  prestige  which  its  uniform 
possesses  in  the  eyes  of  the  French  middle  class  and  the 
social  force  of  the  comradeship  which  it  engenders,  is  an 
anachronism  in  many  respects  in  modern  higher  edu- 
cation, as  I  have  already  pointed  above.  The  contrary 
would  have  been  surprising  if  one  considers  the  fact 
that  the  school  has,  so  to  speak,  not  changed  for  a  cen- 
tury, and  it  is  an  utter  anomaly  that  even  today  the 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  263 

Ministry  of  War  determines  the  destinies  and  the 
regime  of  a  school  of  engineers!  The  Institute  too  needs 
a  rejuvenation  in  spite  of  the  favor  which  the  general 
public  accords  to  it. 

We  must  recast  all  these  institutions  each  one  of 
which  has  had  its  share  of  glory  and  preserves  its  in- 
trinsic virtues,  but  altering  and  coordinating  them  anew 
so  as  to  adapt  them  to  present  needs.  At  the  same  time, 
we  must  endow  them  all  much  more  considerably  than 
at  present.  Living  is  becoming  more  expensive  for  the 
scientific  institutions  as  for  individuals  and  at  a  much 
faster  rate.  The  community,  that  is  to  say,  the  state 
must  understand  this.  Public-spirited  individuals  of 
wealth  and  culture  must  help  these  institutions  to  be 
equal  to  their  tasks.  The  richer  classes  of  America 
offer  a  magnificent  example  in  this  respect,  thus  furnish- 
ing some  excuse  for  the  plutocratic  regime  which  is 
sometimes  justly  condemned  by  democrats. 

What  is  most  important  at  the  present  is  to  realize 
that  great  effort  will  be  called  for  after  the  war.  Our 
race  has  sufficient  resources  to  justify  confidence  in  its 
future.  In  the  course  of  these  three  years,  France  has 
demonstrated  that  she  is  capable  of  immediate  and 
continued  effort,  whereas  in  the  opinion  of  many 
strangers,  judging  from  appearances,  she  was  only  the 
deposit  of  a  past  glory  of  which  only  the  delicate  but 
impotent  charm  had  remained. 

The  battle  of  the  Marne  has  been  defined  as  a  strategic 
restoration  by  the  one  who  by  winning  it  saved  France 
and  the  liberty  of  the  world.  But  it  has  also  been  the 
signal  for  a  moral  restoration  of  the  whole  world.  Those 
who  like  me  were  in  the  United  States  in  1916  during 


264    UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

those  still  doubtful  but  heroic  moments  of  Verdun  were 
able  to  estimate  what  France  had  regained  in  the  opinion 
of  the  world  and  the  credit  she  had  won  for  herself  in 
the  future. 

This  credit  will  lapse  after  a  short  interval  once  the 
crisis  is  passed,  and  when  each  people  has  returned  to 
its  task,  competition  will  inevitably  commence  once 
more  with  new  bitterness.  But  France  must  maintain 
herself  at  the  level  where  the  events  have  placed  her, 
since  August  3,  1914;  for  this,  she  must  pay  the  price 
of  considerable  effort,  which  will  be  the  more  arduous 
as  the  number  of  those  participating  in  the  struggle  will 
have  singularly  diminished,  and  diminished  by  the  loss 
of  the  best  units. 

It  will  therefore  be  urgently  necessary  for  France  to 
secure  maximum  results  from  a  given  effort,  in  every 
field.  France  must  apply  in  a  judicious  manner  the 
principles  developed  by  F.  W.  Taylor  in  all  the  spheres 
of  her  national  activity.  To  this  end,  she  must  achieve 
an  economic  and  intellectual  recovery,  not  less  neces- 
sary than  the  strategical  recovery  of  the  Marne.  She 
must  modernize  —  resolutely  and  methodically  —  all 
her  institutions,  including  the  scientific,  paying  no  con- 
sideration to  the  inertia  of  conservative  gerontocracies. 

I  should  advise  those  who  want  to  understand  mat- 
ters better  to  visit  the  United  States  for  a  few  months. 
There  they  will  realize  not  merely  the  necessity  of  re- 
casting our  implements  of  work  and  action  in  modern 
moulds  but  they  will  also  be  encouraged  by  the  admira- 
tion provoked  by  the  effort  of  France  and  impressed  by 
the  idealism  which  goes  into  the  practical  spirit  of  the 
American  people  and  which  drives  universities  and 


SCIENTIFIC  LIFE  265 

scientific  establishments  at  such  a  rapid  rate  in  the 
path  of  development  and  progress. 

It  is  to  this  that  the  little  book  in  hand  attempts  to 
bear  witness;  it  shall  end  by  asserting  once  more  the 
profound  importance  of  developing  the  mutual  ac- 
quaintance between  the  men  of  science  and  the  academic 
institutions  of  the  two  countries.  Such  an  acquaintance 
generates  not  only  sympathy  but  also  power. 


APPENDICES 


268 


UNIVERSITIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


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SCIENTIFIC  LIFE 


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